


When the Clock Strikes Twelve

by H0LYxSHiP



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: (THE SHIPPING NAME ERM NOT THE...well...device...bahah), (as I do with ALL my writing), (no matter how hard I judge myself for it!), Appropriate for younger ages, Attempt at Humor, Drinking, Half Crackattack, Humanoid, I Don't Even Know, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Bad At Tagging, JackRabbit - Freeform, Language, M/M, New Years, None of that 50 shades bullshit, Rating May Change, Sex, Sexual Situations, Unresolved Tension, [Slash] Alcohol, but - Freeform, half serious, there will be sex haha
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-06 04:52:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 22,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8735602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/H0LYxSHiP/pseuds/H0LYxSHiP
Summary: Claiming to despise the holiday, Jack wakes up on New Years Eve to find himself in a compromising position when the simple knowledge of Bunny embodying his human form at midnight forces him to fixate. Caught between the fantasy and reality of his feelings as he attempts to explore them up close and personally. (yyyeaaah, suck at summaries too, I guess lol, read it though, it's a good time, I think)





	1. Part I of IV

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to skip over the text at the very top that's above the obnoxious ascii picture title in the main text, it's just force of habit to write author notes somewhere I can format the text. Overall, it's just a brief introduction and like a few misc. tidbits about the story, but they're not imperative. Enjoy :)

* * *

_**Brief Annoying Bullshit** _

**┻━┻︵ \\(°□°)/ ︵ ┻━┻**

~~_READY.SET.RAMBLE._ ~~

_Fourscore and sixty-days shy of four years ago—so, yes, I'm 84, impressive, no?—my sister challenged me to write a one shot. Needless to say, I failed. But now my soon to be twenty-five year old self is going to revisit and relive all the 'dear **god** , I questioned myself SO HARD as a person for ever shipping this' shame and 'sorry, I'm not sorry I did it' Jackrabbit phase of my twenty-one year old self. I don't even care. I go down with my ships. In bbbeetter news, although incomplete, this is probably the ONLY fic that I have EVER, _ **EVER** _not preplanned and overwritten with constant convoluted symbolic bullshit _ _slash preordained in my brain into becoming this 200 page, 80 years later and ~~maybe~~ I'll be finished, story. _**Regardless** _, as with anything I start, I always intend to get back around to it; and, just so happens, out of sheer boredom and **hatred** of finals, I decided that I'd give this one a spin. _

The story itself is four parts, **two** of which I already wrote when I first started, one of which I've _been_ writing, **re** -writing, and  ~~drowning~~ in drafts for mehh, the last three years? Give or take? But I FINALLY decided how to fix it. And the final one, part four, I've ultimately got almost all the pieces scattered about for. _That,_ and to my surprise, I actually sat down the other day **and** WROTE for it—this may hardly seem like a major accomplishment, buuut, when all your stories get a 3 year hiatus cause you've been dissecting the SAME chapter you've been writing for ALL of them that whole time, dear god does it feel great. ANYWAYS. Enough of that rambling babble. 

 _**Basically, this is a New Years fic, even though I** **HA** **TE,** **ABHOR, DETEST, LOOOAHTE **_**ヾ( ･`⌓´･)ﾉﾞ** _ **[insert every possible corresponding synonym] *ahem***_ **SAID** _ **"holiday," lol but it was that coughAWFULcough time of year, (sigh) how dare they curse the first day of my birth month!!! But yeah, whatever, they're all magical anyways and it was just a good overall catalyst. And** **although** **I**_ **DID** _ **fashion Jack to dislike it too, I also refrained from turning him into**_ **me** _ **. So, never fear, that will NOT be the entire point of the story. Instead, I made it so that New Years is the one day that Tooth and Bunny inhabit their human forms, dun-dun-dun-**_ duun _. **Y'know, since it's supposedly the holiday of 'celebrating new beginnings' blah blah**_ blah _ **. It's not hard to figure out lol. Also, it's 500 Days of Summer Style Spliced, or, well, I guess ANYTHING that follows time-jump format spliced sequencing. Aka: I jump around from time to time leading up to midnight and what comes after. So, if some scenes get choppy, they're supposed to be. It's all chronological though, no flash backing. (At least in the first two parts, that MIIIGHT change for one thing). And yeah.**_                        

Read, Review, Enjoy, [Or Hate], Or Whatever You Want

_And thank you in advance to anybody who may perchance stumble across and give a hoot about this fic :)_

_LET THE DRUNKEN-CRACK FIC-BUT ALSO ACTUAL STORY WITH PURPOSE-BEGIN!_  
  
ヽ(°◇° )ノ  


* * *

 ~~ _A One Shot_~~  |  _Part I of IV  
_

* * *

_  
_ |9:50  **AM|**

Jack rose groggily from his slumber, glancing around at the rude awakening of the time, followed by the mental-memo that he had somewhere to be at  _10:30._ Running his hands down his face—the temptation of his mattress winning out against both his capacity and willingness to function—processing only that far before happening to catch the date posted on the calendar across the room in  **bold** , black  _Times New Roman._

" _Ugh._ "

He released an unflattering and equally disgusted noise of protest, a s if to prove something to the lifeless sheet of paper he was now engaging in a disoriented, mid-morning staring contest with.

 _Just give it up already,_ he thought, annoyedly and aggravated...

...Everyone was always claiming that it was  _'s_ _oo magical'._ That the way you spent  _New Years_ was the way you'd spend the next year of your life. That it was the precedent from which the rest was set. The idiotic ideology that he'd been watching for a lifetime—the response projecting in all the cliche, life-styled dramas, and in all the starry eyed teens he'd followed over the years from party to party. Watching as generation after generation threw all bets off for a single night of unpredictable happenstance. 

Jack rolled his eyes,  _as if **those** are promising odds..._

All that ever changed were the fashion statements and the substance abuse, the rest remained static and cyclical; but, admittedly, Jack had been fascinated at first. Never understanding why they threw away their hopes and dreams and deepest secrets to the disappointment. And then relived it annually. He himself had lost countless years to the tragic study of cause-and-effect, eventually allowing the lot of it to morph his once genuine fascination into a deep state of detest for the festivities, refusing to take part in them at all. 

 _Which,_  was the problem with waking up with  _December 31st_ circled several times in blue-sharpie snowflakes...

This year. He was one of them.

One of  _those_ people...

Considering the absurdity of the notion, Jack finally disengaged, falling back into the mess of blankets. " _ThisIsn'tHappening_ ," came a deep, muffled groan from beneath whichever pillow he was currently smothering himself with; attempting, in vain, to suffocate the  **one** ,  _particular_ sequence he'd been cooking up for months now...

The simple, self-confirmation that he had taken to  _New Years_ like a junkie takes to needles; injecting himself thoughtlessly with this life-threatening disease, instantly developing an insatiable habit for the most heartbreaking addiction...For seeking solace in the altered perceptions. For falling victim to the simple misconception that any of it was real. 

 _IT_.

Was about six feet tall—

Australian—

"And never going to happen," he glared inwardly in conclusion. 

|10:45  **AM** |

Jack locked eyes with the doors to North's  _Globe Room_ _—_ where _all_  the other Guardians were waiting for his oh-so-charecteristic late arrival. 

_Deep breath._

" _Well_ ," he inhaled, while blue eyes closed, aligning his palms with the double doors, "it's  _all down hill_ from here..."

|11:00  **AM** |

"So..." Jack rocked back on his heels provokingly. "... _New Years..._ "

"It's  _not_ that big a' deal," the Australian insisted ineffectually, shooting Jack a forewarning glance that only seemed to entice the winter sprite. 

" _Not a big deal_?"he echoed, leaning into his staff with a self-knowing smirk, "Did you forget what today  _is,_ Bunny?"

"Oh, Bunnymund does not forget  _this_ day," North interjected lightheartedly, "just like Easter—he is always making way bigger deal of than really is."

Taking a defensive hop forward, the Pooka narrowed his eyes, "Whoa now, mate. New Years is  _no_  Easter."

"You are right, my friend," the rotund, red-clad belly shook with laughter, "more people celebrate it."

Although disappointed that the conversation between them had been stolen, Jack couldn't help but grin at the ensuing antics. Watching amusedly as emerald eyes narrowed and pierced.

"Too far," Bunny glared, unappreciative of North making this even more insufferable than it already was.

Standing a few centimeters behind him, Sandy nodded in agreement while a set of perpendicular lines materialized overhead in segments of amber dream-sand. Followed shortly by Tooth, who proceeded to swoop down between the confrontation in order to act as the voice of reason. 

" _Enough,_ " she silenced any further protest, reprimanding them like a disappointed parent, "Sandy's right. That crossed the line," Tooth affirmed, looking back and forth sternly from one guardian to the other as they glanced up, at each other, and away again. " _North_ , apologize. Aster,  _relax_."

" _Don't_ tell me to relax," Bunny fussed unreceptively, matched by the larger man's shoulders dropping with a deflated sigh, "Is absolutely necessary, Tooth?"

However, the keeper of memories simply hovered as silently as Sandy, with an even expression set across her features and her hands propped against her hips in an air of unchallengeable, maternal authority. 

At the sight of the infamous combination, right away both of them knew better than to try and argue their way out of her terms. 

"I am sorry," North sighed. "You are right, Bunnymund, New Years is no Easter."

Bunny nodded in approval, unable to accept the apology verbally when he knew all too well he'd only wind up compromising the peace with some kind of backhanded slight.

" _Well_ ," Jack exclaimed awkwardly, falling into the stages of intoxication and untangling from his staff, " _I'm_ excited."

The Australian rolled his eyes. "You  _would_ be excited over the biggest joke of a holiday, Frost."

" _Oh_ , it's not New Years that I'm excited for," an impish grin unfolded.

"No idea what ya' even talkin'about, mate," the other feigned ignorance, refusing to rise to the bait. 

"He means  _you_ , Bunnymund," North clarified obliviously, "Jack is excited for  _midnight_. To  _see_."

" _Thank you_ , North," Jack nodded in his direction, causing the jovial elder to smile proudly before the sprite continued to plague Bunny relentlessly, "I wouldn't miss  _this_ countdown for the world."

Another warning glance shot from green eyes into blue, "Well, you have fun with that."

"To  **midnight** ," Jack respecified out of spite, "and you know what  _that_ means, don't you?"

His ears flattened and Bunny sank back into his heels. "Don't say it..."

" _NAKED-SKIN!"_ Jack shouted excitedly, throwing both arms above his head in an enthusiastic burst of smiles and laughter. 

"Why do you have ta call it that?" Aster asked, shaking his head embarrassedly. "Of  _all_ the things," he stressed, "why did it have to be  _that_?"

"Because you're not gonna have any  _fur_ ,  **stupid**."

The other grumbled, "Doesn't mean I'll be  _naked_."

"Tomato,  _Tamahto_ ," Jack shrugged. "Either way, it's going to be one for the books."

" _For cryin' out loud!_ " Both paws flung forward dramatically, "I don't turn into  _the batman_ , frostbite. I don't see why ya' gotta keep talkin' it up like this."

"Because it is big deal!" North insisted.

"Yeah," Jack agreed, grinning, before countering the indirect tactics that Bunny had made painfully evident. "So why are  _you_ trying to avoid the subject, mister?" 

"I'm _not_ ," the rabbit rebutted insincerely, running out of plausible excuses, "I just don't want ya' to be disappointed when ya' realize it's nothin' special."

Toothiana giggled, grinning a coy, girly smile. "Well, I wouldn't go _that_ far."

" _Not helping,_ " Aster shot her an ungrateful glance. 

"Sorry, just saying," she continued to stare knowingly, rising and falling diagonally through the space. "I just remember the first time that _I_ saw the E. Aster behind the Bunnymund."

"How could we forget," North erupted with hearty laughter. "Poor Bunny made my poinsettias run for their money," the bearded man chuckled, misplacing the context of the expression like he always was, completely unaware, as he nudged the Pooka, "didn't you, old friend?"

"Ohh,  _really?_ " Jack inquired. "So much for  _nothing special_ , cottontail."

"Don't call me that," Aster's head snapped from Jack back to North—from one direction to the other—trying to keep up with the onslaught of opinions prying into his personal life. "And I did  _no_ such thing."

" _Oh, yes, you did!_ " the other insisted, watery, wild-flower-blue eyes sparkling with amusement.

Hopping back and forth unsettlingly, Bunnymund tried in vain to occupy the space, but constantly found himself being pulled in every direction by another retort. 

"Yeah, why so modest?" a set of equally transfixing rises encased him fixedly. "Sounds to me like you make  _quite_ the impression."

" _Honestly_ guys," his usually confident vocals were faltering beneath the lack of conviction, "you're blowin' it outta proportion—I mean it—I look just as normal as any of you."

Sandy was somewhere off to the side, falsifying this with a declining shake of the head, catching Jack's gaze long enough to gesture to the double thumbs-up flashing in and out of focus. 

"Hey! I saw that little man!" Green eyes grew wide and shot towards Sandy. Who merely replaced the imagery with a widespread smiley-face and innocently sported a similar grin to match. Raising both eyebrows simultaneously in inference while Bunny began to scowl, nose twitching as his features scrunched up, about to deflect.

Another involuntary giggle escaped Tooth, failing to keep the laughter behind her lips, which were _hardly_ sealed. Wavering and wriggling as they pressed into each other and pulled down with an apology in her eyes as the sound fought past the barricade and out through her nose. She had to clamp her hand over her mouth just to contain them, receiving another pleading look from her fellow friend and guardian.

"Sorry!" she insisted, although remained completely unable to suppress the angle in her smile. "Really! I'm done!"

" _Yeah_ , I think I'm gonna take my chances, hopsalot," Jack nodded affirmatively. "No way an Easter kangaroo looks anything like a  _normal_ human."

"Well, it's a good thing I'm a  _bunny_ , then," Aster corrected forcefully. 

The younger immortal ignored him with an ever expanding smile, "Not for long," he winked. 

"Whatever." The cavalier timing was met with dismissal, unable to mask the resentment as he turned away from the group. "I'll have the place ready by nine...Jack...feel free to stay home...everybody else, you know where to find me."

|8:33  **PM** |

Jack stared blankly as if Tooth was holding some foreign object in her hands. " _Shoes_?" he asked confusedly, scratching the stray lock of hair behind his ear. 

" _Yeah_ ," Tooth sighed, "I didn't think so," placing them somewhere off to the side as she sat Jack down in front of a large vanity mirror. 

|8:35  **PM** |

The scenes projecting through Jack's subconscious from earlier flickered away as the memory reel ran out of film, forcing his attention back towards the twenty-five minutes that separated him from his single, biggest fear. 

_Rejection._

"You don't really think he won't let me in, do you?" he asked Tooth uneasily, recalling the multiple times he'd already threatened not to. 

"Oh, of course not," she waved a dainty, dismissive hand. Hovering around from behind and fussing with Jack's hair. "Bunny always gets a little too... _sensitive_ around this time of year," she concluded, for a lack of better ways to explain, "You can't take it personally."

"A  _little_?" Jack scoffed, catching a glimpse of Sandy in the mirror, replacing Tooth's understatement with an atomic explosion of dream sand that followed the outlines of big, floppy ears. 

As always, even in the absence of sound, the bringer of dreams was silently outspoken—unfailing in the accuracy of imagery that spoke louder than any of them ever could with a voice.  _Words_ , those convoluted, messy things. 

It seemed to Jack that the simplest truths were the ones that went without saying; and perhaps that was why Sandy had mastered it flawlessly, while he himself could hardly survive the crash-course. Constantly colliding head first into brick walls whenever his stupid, impulsive mouth shot him straight forward into dead-ends.

Sighing heavily, he felt a nervous pressure pulsate in his chest. He couldn't even help it. He hated it with every bone in his body—and yet he'd waited for this day like most kids wait for Christmas—tearing pages from the calendar eagerly like the red and green links on a construction paper chain. It was constantly getting closer, but always so far away. And the immortal had grown restless.

Up until recently, he'd personally never cared much for New Years; however, a certain force of nature had persuaded him to reconsider, not that he'd ever share this information aloud or willingly, of course. To be frank, ever since Jack discovered that it was the one day of the year where Tooth and Bunny embodied their human forms, that they even _could_ embody their human forms, it became all he could think about. 

Allowing E. Aster to steal his thoughts effortlessly.

A small, childlike frown encased his internal expression; eyes furrowing as they flicked back across the narration, sick to his stomach with how much time he'd lost. To the daydreams. To the mental portraits. And to the unexplainable desire to see the man behind the guardian. Saddened that it was something that held no reciprocation. 

A small set of hands rested on his shoulders and Tooth slowed her wings into a steady hover. "I'm serious, don't take it personally, Jack," she observed the boy's declining facial features, "it's not your fault—he's never liked the attention."

And this time, Sandy agreed, giving Jack cause to drag the idea deeper into focus and over-speculate this uncharacteristic lack of confidence.

"I just don't see how that can possibly be true, though," the youth said into the reflective surface, watching the lack of understanding dilate vacantly and eclipse the alternating shades of blue, " _I'm_ the only one he doesn't want there," he exhaled, feeling isolated and just a little misplaced, "notice how he didn't tell either of  _you_ not to show up."

Glancing around undecidedly, the avoidance in the lack of eye contact was evidence enough that she was searching for some surefire way to counteract what was already so painstakingly set in stone. 

"We've just known him longer," she stated, "and well—well you know how you get under his skin, Jack."

The boy shrugged, "Yeah, but he knows I'm only messing with him."

"Does he, though?" she challenged. Not unkindly, but the directness of her words collided with the lack of hesitation that wasn't present in the previous responses, causing his stomach to twist. 

"Well, yeah," Jack shifted, unsure of how to justify something he really didn't know. "Why wouldn't he?"

Tooth's ongoing lack of answers, however, was replaced by Sandy's inexhaustible cache of observations. Taping Jack lightly on the shoulder, he pointed above his head to where a disheveled bed frame sat above a thought bubble, within which, flashed smaller images of a staff, a question mark, and a rabbit—over and over, in that same order. 

Tooth reached forward. "Sandy,  _shhh!_ It's none of our business," she warned him in a futile whisper, as if it would force Jack to omit the following visuals from memory. 

A few months ago, it may have actually worked, too; but a few months ago, Jack would've been able to translate the cryptic meanings no better than North could keep figures of speech straight. But it caught him pleasantly by surprise how quickly he understood the miscellaneous,  _Blue's-Clues,_ out-of-thin-air suspension of somehow always perfectly drawn little pictures. 

The important part—aside from remembering this was very much  _not_  a children's Saturday morning television show, and that the solution did not equate to anything nearly as face-palmingly simple as  _drinking soup—_ was remembering that nothing about the sequence was random. From the pictures to their placement, every element was imperative. For instance, the bed meant Pitch, and Pitch meant fear. And since it floated  _above_ the rest, that meant that it was 'a fear' _over_   'a thought' **.**

Next, focusing in on the remaining hieroglyphs, Jack knew that the flashbulbs of images within the cloud-like silhouette were meant to signify a combination of ideas into an equation—an equation between Jack and Bunnymund of which the value of the joining variable was missing...

"He's afraid of...what I'll think of him?" Jack asked perplexedly. Connecting the dots, but finding no bigger picture coming into focus.

This time, however, Sandy was less forthcoming, withdrawing and exchanging hesitant, slightly guilty glances with Tooth.

" _What?_ " Jack complained. 

"It's nothing," she smiled, fanning out one last section of ghost-like hair, before straightening the crooked, jet black tie that had taken him over an hour to even _figure_ out.Fussing impatiently as Tooth licked her finger and rubbed away at the smudge on his forehead. 

All this coddling was making him feel so small and sheltered, though, so young and inadequate that he couldn't help but pull away with his arms crossed. Pouting. "You guys never tell me  _anything_."

"C'mon, it's ten till." Amethyst eyes rose to check the clock on the wall after Sandy pointed to his wrist. "You don't want to keep him waiting, do you?"

"He's probably already  _ecstatic_ that I'm not already there," Jack spoke dismissively. 

"Well, you'll never know if you don't stop thinking about it and go see for yourself, will you?"

He knew she was right, and Jack's shoulders dropped dejectedly with a labored sigh, checking himself over in the mirror when he found his own confidences dwindling too. He should've felt like a million bucks, but instead, found himself adjusting awkwardly to the layers of dress clothes. The combination had been simple, a royal blue button-up and the standard black suit-and-tie, and yet, the weight was unfamiliar and left Jack feeling imbalanced. 

Self-conscious.

So, totally, out of his element.

"Maybe Bunnymund's not the only one who's a little nervous," she observed softly, like a parent trying to point out something so painfully obvious to someone with more experience, "but there's nothing to worry about, promise."

Shrinking into himself, offset by how easily she'd exposed his feelings, Jack breathed in with effort, took one last look, shook his head, as if to misplace the reflection, and exhaled unconfidently, "If you say so."

|9:15  **PM** |

By the time they'd reached Bunny's warren, North's sleigh was already parked on the far side of the lush greenery—covered in curious egglets. Immediately, the scents of Spring filled Jack's nostrils, asphyxiating his sensory and convoluting his brain. 

"I can't do this," he turned around abruptly, halfway down the cobblestone path, "I look stupid, this was stupid, coming here was  _stupid_."

However, after an entire flight of listening to similar, empty statements, neither Tooth nor Sandy gave in—refusing to quell the unnecessary outbursts and taking Jack by the arms, dragging him the rest of the way, despite his constant objections.

"Inconsiderately late, as usual," Aster appeared out of nowhere, hopping up to the trio—eyes drawn down to one in particular. 

Jack met the indistinguishable eyes fixed over him, but failed to uphold the contact for more than moment before swallowing. Averting his own to the ground, trying to look enamored with the dozens of little egglets scurrying beneath his feet.

"How did you even know we were here?" Tooth asked surprised, fluttering into a friendly embrace. 

"Are ya kiddin' me?" A pair of long, thin, grayish ears flinched and folded over in Jack's direction, "You can hear frostbite complaining from a mile away," Bunny rolled his eyes, but there was more humor in his voice than spite this time. 

"Hah _-hah_ ," Jack retorted evenly, "And, for your information, I wasn't  _complaining_ from a  _mile away_."

"No, just tha last fifteen'feet," Bunny straightened out, stopping to look back over his shoulder in amusement, having already heard every word. 

Catching up with the distance Aster had put between them, Jack chose to abandon his shyness and secure the lead instead, stepping a few feet ahead. "Awe, have you been waiting for me?"

Emerald eyes narrowed around the self-satisfied glance shot in passing, proceeding to follow, "Didn't wanna give ya the element of surprise is all."

"Why not?" Jack pulled his shoulders up to his ears with an unaffected shrug, eyes falling over the length of the other in his usual form. "It's not like there's anything to look at yet."

"If you're expectin' me ta feel bad about that, think again, mate," a colder tone met the even colder auditory canals of the winter reincarnate, unaware that Jack had anything ulterior up his sleeve. "Not all of us like to showcase our personal lives so carelessly."

"That's right," a pale, slender neck slipped into a steady nod, his fingers shuffling into pants pockets, "I forgot, you only like to  _hide_ things."

|9:25  **PM** |

If Bunnymund said anything else, Jack was already too far ahead to have heard, knowing he was bound to lose that round, too, if he stuck around long enough to let his big, stupid mouth open again. 

 _That was always the trouble, wasn't it?_ Jack thought absently.

He was  _fast_ , but Bunny was  _fast **er**_. Always thrown into this simultaneous blur of wit and motion, this race against the clock; and although Jack was quick enough to ensue the chase, he knew full well that Bunnymund had the stamina to run circles around him. And he did.

All the banter, and all the slights.

All the chasing, and the running, and the picking fights...

 _It's exhausting,_ he sighed to himself, pausing in the dimly lit entryway. Knowing, alternately, that if he had no more than these next few seconds alone, that he needed to use them wisely. Stopping in order to collect and maintain his composure, the reincarnate breathed in deeply, trying to mentally prepare before rendering himself defenselessly to chance. 

"It's  _just_ New Years," he told himself, fussing over his hair, shaking it back out of place and into its playfully messy tousle. "It comes  _every_ year," he continued to prompt, and then repeat the blatantly contradictory phrases aloud in order to instill their validity. "This year is no different."

However, the inability to swallow something too bittersweet to sugarcoat was forcing Jack's smooth, routine motions to grow choppy and disjoining. Frantically tucking and un-tucking his shirt undecidedly, he could feel himself derailing under the pretext of failing to lay down enough track. 

Enough preplanning to coast along smoothly after a certain six-foot mass of gray, blue, and white fur had uprooted all the terrain and then swallowed it deep within a labyrinth of dead ends and darkness. The grounds on which Jack could not stand—the authority over the ebb and flow of his reality that the other secured without effort, and that he'd lost all sight of. 

All meaning had escaped him since becoming a guardian, since he'd allowed the others beyond the wall he'd spent a lifetime building up around him like a barricade. Since he'd realized seconds too late that one, E. Aster Bunnymund had slipped beneath it before anyone else could even get halfway up the side. 

Jack couldn't explain it, but somehow he always felt so exposed around his friendly, Mid-April-bound adversary, like no matter how visible he was on the surface, that the other always saw right through him.

This backwards mind-fuck of a way that he could read Jack like a book without caring enough to flip through the pages first. This eerie, unexplainable way of occupying every chamber of his thoughts without ever noticing the boy long enough for Jack to become one of his. 

 _It doesn't even make sense,_ Jack scolded his own stupidity, and less than objective analysis. Realizing that it never would. Anything and everything between them was both complicated, and perfectly clear—creating the worst kind of balance—the kind that couldn't be tipped. 

From one extreme to the next, they'd forged all middle ground; every thought had been over-speculated, and, soon after, lost the importance of becoming a decision. Everything was so goddamn balanced that it was backwards, and within the span of a single year, the last person he'd ever expected to affect him—his confidence—his potential—or his ability to survive on his own, had gotten closer to him than anyone else in this lifetime was ever able.

Ironically enough, E. Aster Bunnymund had ridden out the  _Blizzard of '68_ , only to walk right back into Jack's life, unscathed, and change  _everything._

The thought made it hard to breathe,  _hard **er**_ to breathe, and there was a space in his chest that had begun to lag after a certain point. After the centripetal palpitations had exhausted the once involuntary reflex into a painfully forced motion, devoid of any feeling. 

An empty space he'd never known was there, an empty space that he needed now, more than ever, to fill...

To know...

"For the  _hundredth_ time, Jack, you look  _fine_."

The sound of Tooth froze him immediately, stiffening his posture and paralyzing his thoughts. 

"Honestly," she flew forward to fix his hair—like this was a high school dance and he was waiting nervously for his date to be dropped off—smiling at the sight of her baby all grown up. "Here," she pivoted him towards the full-length mirror. It was nearly seven feet high and imbedded in the trunk of a tree that grew the house. "See? Look how handsome you look."

Ungodly discomfited, Jack's cheeks began to flood with frozen shades of blue, crystallizing the embarrassment noticeably across the bridge of his nose.

"Doesn't he look handsome?" she turned to the other two, leaving them no more than a five second window to respond, " _Bunny_ , tell Jack he looks nice."

The pallor boy's eyes shot open. "No!" he exclaimed, sucking in a sharp gust of air after catching a glimpse of Aster in the reflection. Head cocked to the side, eyes momentarily falling over the length of his body before the sprite's shrill reverberation of protest broke his focus and forced his gaze to find its way back into Jack's.

The Pooka's head was still at a slight angle, but his eyebrows rose as he drew closer, towering over the other. "Relax, mate," Bunny peered down, "I don't bite," he spoke calmly, instinctively unable to stand the sight of snow beginning to form over the pale head of hair.

Then the elder's voice started to drop almost inaudibly, and the soft sensation of fur curved over Jack's shoulder. Simultaneously, seeing this as some sort of sign, Sandy began pushing Tooth quietly out the door, ushering them both away from a moment that they weren't meant to share. 

Which, to be honest, only made the immortal's heart pound and his knees buckle and the snow fall faster. 

"Don't be so embarrassed," a reassuring voice whispered, while Bunny dusted the flakes from his hair and clothing, knowing all too well how much the younger boy despised how easily his one true ability betrayed him. "You're going to bury yourself."

"What's it to  _you?"_ Jack pulled away, flinching at the soft-spoken sounds and the unusually personal shift in contact. 

"Nothin' really," the other shrugged, "you can do as ya' please. Jus sayin'...it might be a shame, since she's right," Aster offered, taking one last casual glance. "You clean up pretty good, frostbite."

|9:47  **PM** |

Unable to retrace any conceivable memory of how he'd ever found his feet to follow Bunny in the first place, the next time Jack came out of the surreal, dream-like motion, North was crushing him in a bear hug. 

"Look at you!" he exclaimed, setting the winter sprite back on the ground with a hearty slap, "No more  _capris!_ "

Bunnymund snorted, so unexpectedly, that he spit back out a mouthful of scotch. 

"See?" North pointed back, misinterpreting the reaction, "Even Bunny notices—must be looking pretty sharp, no?"

" _Heh_ ," Jack released a nervous laugh, wanting nothing more than to apologize profusely to Bunny now, for putting him through a similar hell earlier that morning. Burning up under the spotlight of everyone observing his person. 

Aster only seemed to read his mind, though. Whispering in passing as the teen slipped across the room, "Not so funny anymore, is it, big shot?"

"No," Jack sighed, lulled into a temporary bought of normalcy, "you have my  _sincerest_ apologies."

"Whoa-whoa, wait a tick," Bunnymund interjected, "and just what do you think  _you're_ doing?"

Jack's hand retracted from the rather impressive assortment of percentages and proofs. " _Really?_ " he asked, with wide eyes and then an even stare, "you're going to pull this on  _today_ of all days?"

"Well, jus cause ya throw on a suit and tie doesn't mean ya can jus walk into tha bar, mate." Bunny began to speak in misplaced metaphors, stiffening undecidedly, and feeling just a little sad on the inside. But he'd never let any of  _them_ see that, not for what it was. Continuing to surround Jack like an after school special instead. 

"Oh, lighten up, Bunnymund, do not murder the party," North  _tsk'd_ , swishing his own glass of clear liquid around in his hand. "Let him have a drink, today is celebration—not random day at two in the afternoon," he rationalized, " _that_ is when you can start to worry. He just wants to have good time is all."

" _Yeah_ , Bunny," Jack chorused, drawing his vocals into a demure, but whiney pout. "I just wanna have a little  _fun_."

"Okay, first of all," Bunny gestured from North back to himself, "it's my party, and I'll kill it if I want to. And  _yes_ , I just said that. Second of all," he pivoted to the left, "that was  _maybe_ , the creepiest thing you have ever said to me...so  _please_...never do it again."

"Sooo..." Jack trailed off, leaning into his staff, "about that whole drinking thing..."

"Why do you  _need_ a drink?" Bunny demanded authoritatively, "I don't need you puking up slush all over my warren on some  _Guardians Gone Wild_ bullshit," his eyes narrowed skeptically with the unusual curse. "I mean, have you ever even  _been_ drunk before?"

" _Bunny_ ," Jack stated calmly, like the moment before you explain to your parents that you haven't been six for like twelve years now. "I've been eighteen for over  _three hundred years_. And I'm  _invisible..._ was that really even a question?"

"Fine,  _here_ ," lanky ears perked back up, but the pale teen wasn't sure what it meant when Aster stood at his full height. Shoving the glass into Jack's hand, "if you're so experienced,  _take it_ ," he said with a little snap. "But don't come cryin' ta me when you start gettin' all sick, ya' hear?"

Rather than lash back, Jack drew the glass up to a devilish smirk, " _Cheers_ ," he nodded, swallowing the scotch in two, smooth motions. Pulling his lips away from the rim of the glass slowly, he released a satisfied breath, causing the other to stare back in blank fascination as he returned the empty snifter with a grin, "Hope you like carrots."

|10:35  **PM** |

The music was just loud enough that the base was causing the floor to hum softly beneath the added pressure of North's tumultuous footsteps. No one had secured completely stable levels, and everyone was their own shade of drunk. Exchanging shifters for shot glasses for old fashioned's and then bottles or drink's that hadn't been bothered in more than five minutes. That, or had been swapped and abandoned out of boredom, seeking to satiate the hankering for a taste of something different. New.  _Different._ **New.**

He wondered if the two were mutually exclusive then shook his head, Jack himself seeking solace in the baby sips of scotch. Like little shots of liquid courage,  _and more than worth the burn,_ he thought, draining the contents and polishing off his second and third helping as quickly as any eighteen year old would. Leaving no room for moderation.

 _Thank MiM for cultural differences,_ he sighed in relief, highly appreciative of the Russian for encouraging him to engage with them like adults, especially after Bunnymund had never made him feel more like a child. A small, unknowing, fragile little thing, whose lack of experience prevented him from making informed decisions.

It was true that he wasn't "legally" of age;  _but age is just a number_ , he thought as his lips pulled upward, savoring the burning sensation that swelled in his stomach. Radiating an unprecedented warmth throughout his limbs and causing the slightest tingle. Almost numbing, but it felt good, like friction casting sparks, little flares of warmth...He liked the warmth—the tangibility—the heated sensations that melted the restraints of propensity and preposition from his joints. Freeing him of his shackles—from the frozen tundra that was his life. The world that suddenly felt so sad and lonely in comparison to a place like this.

He wanted it. That sense of completion. 

The magnetism seemed misplaced, contradicting almost everything he stood for, but opposites had never stopped attracting for Jack, and neither had the allure of such an innocent desire to experience the things in life that never came as easy naturally. So, he drown himself in everything he wasn't, and hoped that no one else would notice he'd gone overboard. Allowing him to sink deep into the heart of darkness, silently and undetected, almost frozen. Always interchanging and trading its form, in many ways, heat was a lot like coldness. In moderation, it was tolerable and almost pleasant, but in excess, both were overwhelming. Whether it was below zero or breaking a hundred, if you got too close to either degree of extreme—they burned. 

They were opposites that conjoined to create a sense of equality as a whole, a sort of elemental equilibrium, like frostbite and blisters—freezer burn and heat rashes—producing an indiscernibly balanced sensation in which fire and ice have lost designation. It set in skin deep and then sank into your stomach, just like the alcohol was doing now. Taking him over. Consuming him. Overpowering his inhibitions and poisoning him so peacefully that Jack confused drowning with floating, sinking slowly as he lapped in the shallow pools of the dark and strangely calming elixir. 

Effective almost immediately, the dissolution of forty-proof into his blood stream was triggering a fast-forward metamorphosis that matured Jack's audacity on contact, and before his brain could register the action he was walking up to Bunny with his confidence in full strut. 

"Why aren't you dancing?" A soft, curious expression emitted the ghost-haired youth, providing inference as baby-blue orbs strayed to the side, over to where Sandy was twirling Tooth in circles and North's boots stomped crudely with the sounds, hollering as he slapped his knee. 

"'Cause I don't dance," Aster summarized, staring at his half-empty glass and stirring the substance disinterestedly.

He took a step closer, "Sorry, but that answers already been taken by the rest of the world," his eyes rolled playfully. "Seriously, if you asked a room full of people that same question, most of them would give that same answer," Jack's vocals dropped coaxingly, "Are you going to try and tell me that  _E. Aster Bunnymund_ is  _most people_?"

"What kinda' angle you workin' frostbite?" The elder's eyebrow rose and emerald stained irises refocused speculatively. 

"No angle," soft strands shook as Jack's head moved slowly in either direction, "just an observation."

"And what,  _pray tell_ , was so persuasive about my not dancing that you felt the need to turn my peace and quiet into twenty questions?" Bunny asked, propping both his arms against his waist, leaning forward, " _Huh?_ "

Jack peered up innocently, "...it's just that you're not having any fun, that's all."

Eyebrows furrowed, unconvinced, and hesitation caused Bunny to accept another sip of scotch before accepting Jack's answer. "It's my party," he shrugged, "playing host means I have to keep my wits about me. And besides, what concern is it of  _yours_ whether or not I enjoy myself?"

"Seriously?" Jack waited for Bunny to catch up, gesturing noticeably to himself, "Guardian of  _Fun?_ " he prompted. "It's  _kind of_ my thing, remember?"

"Well, it's a' holiday," Aster widened his eyes sarcastically. "Take the night off."

"Oh, no, no," the older male's dismissal was met with a condescending smirk, "unlike you  _tie-a-bow-ben-bunny,_ my work's never done." Blue eyes met the other's heightened gaze tauntingly. "Not all of us go out of season, y'know."

"Easy there snowstorm, don't get yourself all riled up," Bunny warned, "'cause it isn't gonna' work." Another sip and a substantiating nod, "No matter how many scattered flurries you toss around."

"Well why  _not!_ " the youth exhaled, crossing his arms in a stubborn, and undeniably adorable pout. 

Emerald eyes readjusted, tapering off at the sight of colorless lips pursing unfamiliarly and flushed, almost flesh colored where they pressed together in displeasure. 

"I already told ya', Frost, I  _don't_ dance," Bunny reiterated, after his focus was overthrown by a lack of expectancy. "I  _can't_ dance," he rephrased, discrediting all conviction as his body language started slipping uncertainly in slightly offset shifts the longer he looked. 

"Well, I find that very hard to believe," Jack reached up, never pausing to process hesitation, rubbing the soft gray and white fur between his thumb and forefinger. "With ears like these?" he glanced up, releasing one of Bunny's, "there's  _no **way**  _that you can't follow a beat."

The contact thickened the alcohol in Bunnymund's stomach, making it feel heavy and nauseating and hard to playoff when the perpetually determined sprite continued to pull at him. Gathering up rolls of fur between the small spaces in his fingers.

"I can follow it quite fine," he cleared his throat, taking a sip immediately because it felt so dry and ready to crack; unnerved when it was his last. "It's the whole moving 'with it' that I'm no good at," Aster clarified, turning to discard the empty glass, "and I'm not  _nearly_ drunk enough to start trying."

Jack reached forward gingerly, sapphire eyes watching the lengths of his arms as they moved to the sides of Bunny's. "Now I  _know_ you're not telling innocent, little old  _me_ that you can't dance unless you have  _alcohol_ ," he prompted, engaging the mirroring glance. Meeting viridian eyes the moment his palms flattened along the elder's tattooed biceps, loosely enveloping their circumferences, "because then that wholesome  _example_ you set for me would all be for nothing, and honestly, what kind of guardian would y—"

"—I caught the drift," the other interrupted, shimmying his shoulders to release himself from the teen's grip. "But I'm not running your little guilt trip routine anywhere but into the ground, got that?"

"How can you catch something that I never threw?" Jack asked, continuing to taunt and tease. Ignoring the other's shakes and shoves in order to let his hands slide down the bent slopes of fur until they secured to the other's wrists like a set of strings. "Because if you're seeing things Bunny, then a breathalyzer might be in order," the boy teased, "Unless you cooperate," he offered, moving the limp appendages in jaunty, lighthearted motions. "In that case, I think maybe I can make an exception."

"All this coming from  _barely-legal?_ " Aster's head tipped downward, motioning to Jack with disbelief, "You should be grateful I'm still lettin' you piss away my best scotch, cumulonimbus."

"How many times have I told you," Jack insisted, shaking his head, " _'cumulonimbus'_ does  _not_ work for a nickname," he said disapprovingly, pulling down lightly on Bunny's forearms.

Forcing his weight to shift forward, the boy's words put Aster on his toes, tipping the force of balance when gravity challenged it. "Stop changing the subject," he scolded, initiating another incomplete attempt to take back his arms.

"Stop fighting the music!" Jack threw back in his face with a laugh, pushing Bunny's wrists forward this time. Rocking the other's body back and forth with his own.

" _Frost!_ "

 _"Bunny,"_ he repeated, gathering his shoulders in anticipation, rolling them into a shimmy. " _C'mon_ , you  _know_ you  _wannaaa_."

"Don't," Aster warned, watching the other winding up; trapped in the corner as he tried to take a step back, but found the table preventing his escape. "I'm serious."

" _C'mon,_ Bunny," Jack called to him as if he were a dog, pumping their arms out of sync with the fast-pace rhythm. Losing fluidity under the deadweight of uncooperative limbs hanging lifelessly in his grasp, " _C'monnnn!_ "

This time, the other's face ell evenly, clearly unimpressed with Jack's shimmying, cocking to the side as it shook pitifully, "Oh  _no_ , mate."

"Oh,  _yes_ ," the younger immortal corrected, putting more force into pull forward than he had before. Substituting the strength he couldn't meet his words with. " _Dance with meee_ ," Jack whined, giving no more than a second of pause, "you're the only one who won't."

"Really? And who else did you ask?" the other implored, gesturing towards their fellow guardians. "What about North?" he suggested, "Looks to me like you could be of better use to him than me right a' bout now."

"I don't  _want_ to dance with North," Jack stepped forward, forgetting himself as his lips lost reluctance, closing the space between them with a quizzical smirk, "or are you too drunk to remember that it's  _you_ who I'm asking?"

"Oh,  _dance_ with him Bunny," Tooth twirled by, catching an earful of their conversation as Sandy followed with corresponding depictions of approval. 

"Yes!" North joined in, taking a spirited swig, sloshing his glass around carelessly as he clapped along, "Dance because there is no tomorrow!"

Bunnymund rolled his eyes, not bothering to point out the correct phrasing because he was too busy sinking down in defeat. " _Fine_ ," he exhaled gruffly, stomaching his pride as he readied his surrender, " _One_ dance."

However, the rabbit had been moving so slowly that his over-active auditory canals had somehow missed the music beginning to soften in sync with his breathing, causing Jack to grin and Bunny to glare. 

" _Nice going,_ " he mumbled down at the sprite, visibly discontent as the small, tentative hop brought him closer with a soft  _thump_. Almost immediately, the selection faded from raw, throbbing base and into the tender, delicate intonations that made Bunny's ears flatten. 

"Now,  _really_ , was that so hard?" Jack mused, feigning confidence as he stood on his tiptoes to reach the other's shoulders. Heart beginning to beat skittishly as the winter reincarnate awaited the soft pressure of paws to return the gesture.

Reluctantly, Bunny followed the boy's initiative with stiff, uncomfortable movements. Hesitating forward with all eyes on him, he secured an undecided handhold, stopping somewhere way too high above Jack's hips and almost halfway up his waist. 

"You're doing it all wrong," Tooth interjected, and the fleeting impressions disappeared when she flew forward and removed them from Jack's abdomen. 

The Pooka's shoulders lowered even further. " _Come on_ ," he complained, too out of his element to try and take his hands back from a second hijacker. 

"You're not supposed to look like you'd rather  _kill yourself_ ," she rationalized, glancing sternly between them as the sarcastic subtleties transpired behind prismatic, purple eyes and met Bunny's. "You're holding  _Jack_ , Aster, not Christmas," she pointed out softly. Resting both paws against the slender, protruding slopes of hipbones, and leaving them warily around the other's nervous waist. "And  _you're_ supposed to move  _with_ Bunny," the fairy pivoted to Jack with the restless beating of wings, "not leapfrog right over him," she insisted, prying up his fingertips from the warrior's broad, able shoulders to further rearrange.

Jack felt the wavering grip around his midsection grow more stable, easing his weight into their grasp as Tooth replaced his arms around Bunny's neck, forcing the Australian to support the other's body as it was pulled into his chest.

" _Oh to hell with this,_ " Bunnymund shook his head abruptly, untangling their proportions and stepping back with both hands risen between their chests like a forcefield, "too bloody complicated for one, stupid dance."

The immortal's face fell just enough for Sandy to catch the boy's unspoken disappointment with a frown. Choosing, even in his unfailing silence, not to state the obvious, he blocked Bunny's way with a simple, stern cross of the arms, and a soundless stare.

Still thumping and pounding irregularly, Jack could feel his heart continue to slam against his chest in nervous, shallow beats. The alcohol was a way to take his mind off the pressure, but the attention it'd drawn to them was unforgivable. Asking Bunny to dance had been difficult enough, not to mention questionable. And now that everybody knew, it was becoming more and more prone to speculation. The up-close, invasive kind of scrutiny that they didn't have the time or the proximity for right now; and Jack almost gave up on trying to go through with it altogether, before seeing Bunny's stomach go concave, dropping his upper body lifelessly into itself when there wasn't even dream sand there to argue with. 

"...I hate New Years," Aster sighed, sucking in a sharp, deep breath of air before turning back to the younger boy. 

Jack's hands traveled upward, slinking around the Pooka's neck as he pushed his toes against the floor again, pulling forward in a whisper, "it hates you too _._ "

"This is embarrassing," Bunny mumbled under his breath, staring reflexively at the ground when the space between their chests shrank. Stumbling closer after a gentle shove from Sandy sent both paws back to the other's hips with a self-deprecating sigh, "so  _ungodly_ embarrassing."

"No, mate," Jack shook his head, revealing a shy smile and even shyer eyes that sparkled and pooled, "it's  _adorable_."

|10:55  **PM** |

Bunnymund looked unsure of whether or not he wanted to smile. Deciding to concentrate on their out of sync strides instead of their strained eye contact, or total lack thereof, tracing the motions of their feet falling clumsily off step in an uncoordinated shuffling. 

"It's three steps," he offered suddenly, and unexpectedly, temporarily pressing the small of the teen's back lightly with his paw. " _One, two, three—_ turn," he pivoted, " _one, two, three—_ turn."

Out of sheer surprise, Jack allowed his body to be pushed and prompted, tripping and stumbling as he watched their steps in attempts to follow Bunny's lead. They were stepping all over each other, though. And although the alcohol provided the audacity to initiate, it lacked the security to uphold the contact. In his defense, Jack hadn't been counting on the slow song, for one, or the radio to betray his initial subtleties; but it became instantaneously undeniable that the lessening proximity made the exchange seem more intimate than it really was. 

Not that he minded. 

In truth, his only objective had been to draw the other out of solitude _,_ and so drawing the tall, fit, well-built chest of fur closer into his own was purely a bonus. Unexpected; but unavoidable. Once the other's had become involved and incited the interaction accordingly, they'd revoked any opportunity for either to get out of going through with it. But he hadn't anticipated the whole thing to feel so heavy and looming over them; fidgety in an otherwise unmoving sort of way, just the stark contrast of his sternum rising and falling with the expansion and contraction of deep breathing against the rhythmic succession and arrangement of sounds painting the aesthetics.

An emission of fear or anger or deeper undergone emotions, according to basic body language translations, but it's not like the alcohol and the anxiety really left him much room to differentiate and decipher. Bunny was right, it was embarrassing. 

It started out so innocently, too _—_ without double motive or even thought _—_ just a shy, flustered endeavor that Jack thought was going nowhere right before it brought them chest-to-chest, leaving both guardians in unprecedented silence. No arguing or jesting or playing dumb, just the best possible chance ruined by the shittiest possible day. And all of his silly, stupid, couldn't they have died along with him, involuntary, biological processes giving it all away.

"Your feet are too big," the ghost-haired boy complained, growing insecure when their mouths refused to speak and their feet continued to falter.

Bunny scowled, "Are not _—_ you just can't  _follow_ ," he insisted, staring fixedly at the uncoordinated movements as well. 

"Follow?" Jack repeated, "Y'mean, the person who  _supposedly_ doesn't dance?"

"Oh, bite me," Bunny shook his head, pausing momentarily to note the increasing frustration collect and cloud in the boy's focus.

"No thanks," pale lips mumbled, too concentrated for sassy retorts. The song was almost over, and his heart was beginning to constrict at the thought he'd wasted it.

Sighing, breathing in deeply with an almost parental release, Bunnymund recessed in the suspended lull of irresolute feeling and vacillating circumstances. Finding himself illimitably torn between them and how effortlessly they coexisted like this synchronous junction of intersecting points to form a line he could neither cross nor dismantle or distinguish between. Where one of them ended and the other began. Always so internally conflicted over the other boy's happiness.

"C'mon now," he squeezed gently. "There's no use cryin' over spilt milk," the Australian soothed the worried looks the best he knew how, lifting Jack by the waist, just enough to ease his left foot beneath the smaller, shoeless one in front of it. "Better?" Bunny asked, repeating, shuffling Jack's feet on top of his own, "Don't worry, I'll take it from here, frostbite."

Curling inward, the reincarnate felt the soft brush of fur between his toes, and both hands slid back down to the other's shoulders as he wobbled unsteadily. "You sure I'm not too heavy?" Jack asked suddenly, adjusting self-consciously to find his footing when Bunny began taking baby steps.

"Oh yea," Aster grinned for the first time, "you're right," he nodded, slowly tucking his paws behind the small of the boy's lower back to keep him steady. "All ten ounces of you is  _killin'_ me, we should probably switch it up."

"No," Jack stammered, his fingers involuntarily furrowing into the other's fur at the first sight of withdraw. 

A soft, kinder smile spread expansively across the elder's features, and his nose twitched with a knowing grin. " _Shh,_ hush now," Bunny spoke gently, continuing to lift each foot slowly, easing into more graceful strides as he felt Jack's hands settle and lock around his neck, "See? I'm not going anywhere that you're not going."

"Is that a promise?" Jack smiled, his lips upturning genuinely as he watched their feet moving as one, securing one of his hands around his wrist and leaning against the paw pressed into the curve of his back. "Or are you secretly just going to ignore me again afterwards?"

One paw retracted long enough to gesture, "Cross my heart and hope to die," Bunny grinned, completely taken with the adorable set of eyes widening hopefully across from him. 

"Stick a needle in your eye!" Jack began to beam, the alcohol visibly flushing in warmer shades of blue across his face as he smiled with a mouthful of perfect teeth. 

"Happy?" Bunny asked, as the music began to drift in and out of focus, unable to suppress the instinctive impulse to nudge the mess of ghost-like hair affectionately with his nose, "Now you're stuck with me, Frost."

|11:32  **PM** |

There was less than half an hour left and way less than half a bottle of scotch sitting on the table, surrounded by the vanishing levels of vodka that North had been nursing throughout the night. 

"Silly Bunnymund," the large man waved away concern like an incessant gnat, "There is no such thing as  _too much vodka_ when you are Russian, I can drink like fish, no problem."

"Yeah," Jack shook his head in unison, feeling at least three quarters drunker than he had before, " _Silly Bunnymund_."

"Silly _Bunnymund?_ " Aster echoed, gesturing from himself outwardly towards the younger boy, "Try lookin' at yourself, mister  _Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,_ 'cause I'd say  _Jack's drinking tolerance, is clearly worth shit!_ " he finished in sarcastic sing-song.

"You really wanna pull out the nursery rhymes and go  _Hans Christian Andersen_ on this one?" Jack leaned forward provokingly to accept the challenge. "Okay then,  _little bunny-foo-foo, hopping through the forest—halfway through the bottle, and you already start to wobble._ "

Pausing to absorb the counterattack with a lack of amusement, Bunny's face fell only long enough for him to hop forward stubbornly and ensue the antics. " _Little Jack **Horror** , sat in the corner, swallowing his stupid scotch,_" he began condescendingly, " _he poured another glass, and fell straight on his ass, saying 'oh, what an idiot am I!'_ "  
  
" _Here comes Peter Cottontail—oh, but what an epic **FAIL** ," _Jack shouted back _,"Wannabe, honestly, probably, possibly—the kangaroo failed to drink responsibly..._ "

North was standing only centimeters off to the side with a blank, drunken stare that kept widening with every word. "Just find the mistletoe and get over it," he belted out laughing, "you sound like old, married couple singing children's songs."

Both guardians froze in mid-motion, Bunny with his mouth agape _—_ closing rather quickly _—_ as Jack's raised hand sank down by his side, rendering them both stupidly speechless and speechlessly stupid. 

Rather than fight it and provoke an aftershock of epic proportion, however, Aster chose to swallow his pride and be the bigger person, instead. Knowing all too well that nights would be ruined and feelings were bound to get hurt. "Suppose we both sound a little in tha' bottle," he cracked a smile, glancing from Jack to North, "but I'm waitin' for marriage, mate," Bunny waved off humorously, "so I'll have to pass on the mistletoe."

" _Marriage?_ " Jack echoed loud and boisterously, "And exactly, how many other giant, lady kangaroos have  _you_ seen in the last century?" he asked sarcastically, "I must have missed that."

" _Annnd_ ," Bunny extended his vocals, "you ruined it..." he trailed off, rolling his eyes in sync. 

"Oh sure, blame  _me_ for your badly told joke," the winter sprite summarized outlandishly, his speech patterns falling into the slightest slur as they exchanged dialogue playfully. "Cause  _that_ makes sense."

"You're really makin' me wanna break that promise, frostbite," the Pooka warned, looking up from the levels of scotch as he topped off his glass generously. 

Jack handed Bunny his own in response, never phased by the flat, even look the action was received with because his drink was replenished regardless. "But then you'd have to stick a needle in your eye," Jack speculated pityingly, "and that would be  _messy_."

Emerald eyes rolled, "It would be a lot more than messy, smart ass."

"Language!" Tooth interrupted, scolding the onset of curse words, "I swear, it isn't enough to ruin your teeth with that stuff, but you've all got to turn into truckers too!" she exclaimed, hovering busily from diagonal to diagonal. 

Sandy chuckled soundlessly, pumping his arm in a fist as a disjoining horn appeared in dream sand, emitting flashes of sound. 

"Sandy," she scolded, "you're slurring!"

"Yeah, easy on the dream-sand, lightweight," Aster tipped his head humorously, "don't drink and sign, Sandman."

The little golden man rolled his eyes lightheartedly, breathing in and out as if to release a sigh, continuing to sip the spiked sand as he hovered at eye-level in his cloud.

"Hey, Sandy's a champ," Jack stepped forward, resting a hand on the smaller guardian's shoulder, "you drink as much as you want," the boy doted. 

"Do not drink too much friend," North prepared his toast with the proper balance of ice and vodka, "midnight is nearly upon us!"

The alcohol slid down Jack's throat with ease, waiting long enough for it to hit his stomach before cheering and chanting at increasing volumes, " _Naked-Skin! Naked-Skin!_ "

"Regular-skin, regular-skin," Bunny mimicked obnoxiously for affect, overriding the other's outburst. " _Not_ naked. Fully  _clothed_."

Jack rubbed his chin in thought, staring upward into the space with mock deliberation, "Or so you  _say_ ," his voice lingered doubtfully. 

"I do," Aster repeated, nodding and treating Jack as if he were a four year old, "I  _do_ say."

" _Do_ say all you want," Tooth interrupted, lingering nervously in the space, her hardly alcoholic beverage occupying skittish fingers, "but unless you really  _do_ want to be naked, then you'd better do it in your room."

Bunny glanced up. "What?" he asked, eyes traveling to the egg-shaped clock carved into the wall immediately after the question fled his lips. "Oh, crap," he hopped nervously _—_ first to the table to pour a splash more of scotch into his glass, then back between the guardians, glancing at Jack like a deer caught in headlights _—_ wide eyed and terrified, before shaking his head and proceeding towards the hall.

"Well, wish me luck," he flicked his paw, nodding to Tooth as the second hand struck 11:57, " _Safe-changing,_ T."

"You too!" she called out, fluttering downward in a _'z'_ shaped incline before glancing hurriedly around for the small bag of clothing she'd brought along.

"Catch!" Jack shouted, tossing the object in her direction.

She secured it with relative ease and moderately low spillage, beating her wings rapidly as she buzzed towards the route Bunny had taken moments earlier, "See you guys in the New Year!" she sang excitedly, gripping the parcel to her chest as she disappeared. 

|11:59  **PM** |

Their voices rose in unison, all except for Sandy, who signed the countdown sloppily in slurs of amber colored sand, "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one..."

"Happy New Years!" North broke off, thrusting his thick, burly arms into the air at the same time a barrage of two-toned confetti exploded above the Sandman's head, floating down like a fading firework that dissolved against his shimmery silhouette. 

"One whole year of guardianship down," Jack clanked their glasses in a celebratory shot, already drunk enough off the atmosphere, "and only an eternity to go!"

"We do how they say and make life into work," North agreed, meaning more simply that their work became their life upon joining  _MiM's_ elite, mythical guardians. 

Forming a pair of hands overhead, Sandy displayed one palm open and facing upward as the other folded into a fist with the thumb extended vertically. Making slight circular motions before bringing it down against the hand beneath it. 

Jack grinned, "Amen is right,  _Zz-Man_ ," he replied half-heartedly, eyes becoming distracted with the empty archway across the room _—_ the mass of support beams and empty space that isolated them from the unveiling. 

He was so excited that it was nearly bursting through his chest. Nervous at the same time as his palms began to sweat and his line of vision blurred in rapid, frantic movements between focal points. North noticed almost instantaneously, seeing Jack's anticipation like it was rising off his skin in clouds of steam, growing more bold with the addition of truth serum in his blood stream, "You are excited to see Bunnymund without the Bunny," he proposed coaxingly, "just make sure to keep eyes in head my little  _golubchik_ , we do not need anyone stealing them."

Jack rolled his eyes as a pair of eyelash-batting googly ones came at him from Sandy's direction. "No one's stealing my eyes," he rationalized, even though he knew the precaution was figurative. Growing less certain when he himself was half convinced he'd need a leash or duct tape to keep them from falling out of their sockets in search of his unparalleled, New Year's resolution. 

 _To try new things,_ his lips formed a mischievous smile that only darkened beneath his straying intentions,  _do something a little_ different. He supposed they didn't have to be mutually exclusive after all,  _new,_ _different_ , didn't matter, this was both, this was brilliant, this was the best, and he was grinning like a damned fool. Getting swept away in the sweet, dream-like motions of thought that framed the scenarios together so seamlessly that you'd swear it was canon. 

God, he'd really lost it. He  _really_ had gone empty-headed, letting the smooth, flawless finish of perfectly circular spheres slip from his brain and onto the floor with stunted clanks and deep, heavy bounces, misplacing his marbles as his mentality shrank and reduced him into a mono-maniac. Completely obsessed with one, singular idea.

Bunny.

 _Human_ Bunny.

|12:05  **AM** |

 _Thumpthumpthump._ The cardiac collisions in his breast began overlapping and outpacing each other, outsourcing the onset of anxiety with alcohol as pale lips sipped the concoction greedily. Tapping his fingers in miscellaneous rhythms against the glass to keep himself busy.  _Thumpthumpthump._

_*CreeeEEEEeeeaaak*_

The thumps went slow and irregular, faltering from their fast pace and into barely detectable palpitations. Pumping shallowly as Jack's ears twitched like Bunny's did at the faintest signs of life.

_*CrEEEaaaAAAk*_

Now he was hardly sure if his heart was beating slowly or beating at all, holding his breath deep in his lungs as he listened to the sound waves crash more closely, their reverberating rings swallowing the distance in a ripple-effect of creaking and groaning, beginning to outpace his eardrums and overlap the echoes. Bracing himself as the pitter-patter grew heavier against the hardwood floor.

Someone was coming. 

 


	2. Part II of IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Ohhhh Shhhiiit Is About To Get Real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, standard, this was a waste of time emoticon narrative--I really have to just fxcking stop with those lol--so pretty much feel free to ignore that per usual. Other than that, nothing too important about this chapter besides me tweaking that I didn't perfect it lol
> 
> ***And also if you left me any sort of feedback, I typically put in acknowledgements and responses at the beginning of my next chapter updates. Force of habit. So, anybody who reviewed, you'll see double replies, one on your actual comment, one in the text (well, the same one, but yeah), anyone else who left Kudos or bookmarked, will be mentioned before the update :D 
> 
> Thank you everybody for your enthusiastic responses and being so patient with me!!

 

* * *

_Aye-ye-ye!_

**OKAY** , so I'm _totally_ sorry for how long it has taken me to post part two guys, lol after editing and making minor—but significant enough to register as significant in my brain—changes to part one, I, of course, was consumed by the notion of: \ (°ᴗ ° ) / _“Oh, WELL I WILL MOST CERTAINLY ENHANCE PART TWO AS WELL!”_  

  
     **...SEMICOLON!? _BACK TO ORIGINAL FORMAT!_...NO! _CHANGE IT_...   
**  
((≖_≖ )... _yeah_ , _no_ , _this_ … _this_ _isn’t_ _working_ _at_ _all_ …

**BUT _MAAAYBE_  **

ԅ(≖‿≖ԅ) 

...if I just waste just a _FEW_ more weeks doing the **SAME** thing I’ll produce _different_ results…

=͟͟͞͞(╯•̀д•́)))╯彡  __/

**_BULLSHXT_ _!_ **

I CAN’T  _BELIEVE_  IT DIDN’T WORK!!

└(°᷄д°᷅ꐦ) I mean, I do this _EVERY_ S.I.N.G.L.E  **TIME** I EDIT, but I thought THIS YEAR,  _ **surely**!_

 _hmmm_... s(. ‸ . )s ... _I feel there's a valuable lesson to be learned here._..

(°ロ°)☝ _OF COURSE, I'LL JUST GIVE IT EVEN_ MORE  _TIME! BRILLIANT!_  
_...  
_  
●△● ohhh crap...I feel like I was supposed to have accomplished something by now....   
  
\●▽●/ _!_ BUT THAT'S OKAY, _NEW YEARS_ , I'LL **TOTALLY**  CUT THE SHXT AND UPDATE ON NEW YEARS, IT WILL BE SO FITTING, BECAUSE I TOTALLY _LOVE_ THAT HOLIDAY AND DON'T DESPISE IT IN THE _SLIGHTEST_ , THIS WILL BE PERFECT!

 _*voice in the back of my head:_ ಕ _ಕ _"yeah, you know that's_ **never** _going to happen, right?"*_

No, no conscience,└( - ‸-), I WILL, and it will be magical.

_...Come New Years Eve..._

 ヽ(_ _ヽ)  **YES!** _...I have successfully slept the **ENTIRE** **DAY** without _ ANYONE _from my family coming into my room to disrupt my 15 hour slumber....*knock knock*_ **ヾ** **(** **·** **`** ⌓ **´** **·** **)** **ﾉ GO THE FXCK AWAY!!!** (promising start) ...somewhere closer to 8:30 or 9:30 give or take, after I've crawled forth from my nest, showered, and gone downstairs...

  _UGH, NEW YEARS, !ヘﾉ(ò д ó＼)” HISSSS!!_  
_THERE WILL BE_ NO _HAPPINESS HERE!!_  
  
*९॑ ॒ ॓ঌ _"_ _b..but you said...."*_

(งಠᗝಠ)ง WELL I FXCKING LIED, OKAY!  
  
* ॅ **ᆺ**  ॅ _"but what about all those nice reviews people left you..."*_ (¬_¬)  _grumble...grumble...*,"and kudos and bookmarks and tons of other nice things!!"*_ (◡̀_◡́)  _GRRR..._  (guilt settles in as self-loathing subsides)

 (﹒︠₋﹒︡) holy crap. I'm an asshole...(´. _ .`)...but...it's...not...ready...

 ** _*STFUUU! (_** ﾉ◕ヮ◕ ** _)_** ﾉ ** _*:_** ·ﾟ✧ _juuussttt do it!!_ _youuu knowww you're neeever going to_ actually _change anyttthiiing!*_

 _ah..._ shit _.  
 _ (_/。︿。) **_** /  
...you're right _...fuck._  
  
(-_-) defeat.

* * *

 **[CONCLUSION]**  

 **●︿●**  I sincerely apologize for letting my hatred of New Years and false expectations prevent me from properly appreciating all this wonderful feedback; slash stressing over minor grammatical changes and the fact I couldn't dazzle this with a few extra unnecessary, fancy-schmancy edited-add-ins instead of just getting out of my  _stupid-I-hate-the-mac-version-of-Word-'Pages'-pity-party_ and submitting to the inevitable by just updating. Lol, like I KNEW I would, cause I ALWAYS do. _(Sigh)._ Addict mentality, anyone? But no, I was sincerely trying to fix up and have part three finished _before_ I tortured people with part two lol, but alas, as you can see from my _emoticon-clearly-lost-my-mind_ rants I insist upon unleashing, _thaaaat..._ didn't happen either... **ANYWHO** , against my _still-second-guessing-myself-better-judgement,_ I'm just going to get this out of the way and hope it's not completely butchered. Since, hah, _as you can see_ , I'm **totally** not overly critical of my final drafts at _aaaaaallllll_. Nor do I stall with nonsensical babbling. Nope. Not I, said the liar. 

NOW: _Shout-Outs. **Shutting Up.**   ~~RANT COMPLETE.~~_ ~~  
~~

* * *

_**Comment Reviews**   **The Way** **I'm Used To:**  _

**_To_ littleberd: **_Ahh! Thank you so much for your review!!_ **(/^-^(^ ^*)/** _As well as for being the very FIRST to review for this fic! It means a lot_  ^_^  _And yes,_ _finals are the_ devil _,_ _but I persevered_ (◡̀_◡́)ᕤ _, somehow, haha, your motivational good luck was much appreciated too! Bahah, the feedback definitely helped my resolve! However, may I just say, HELLA JEALOUS YOU HAD ALL ESSAYS!!! Ironically enough to my failure for fanfic punctuality, I master in the art of b.s'ing my way through essay prompts! Buuuut, sadly, it was 10,000 flash cards per subject for me *shudder*. Regardless, my apologies for dragging on getting this second installment out, though; however, I will most_ **definitely** _be continuing!! It was just, between recovery time from ~~hell~~ I mean school! Plus Christmas, then New Years _**(** **¬** _ **¬** **)**   _...bleck...okay, well, ESPECIALLY New Years...and finally mine and my older sister's birthdays on the 6th and the 8th, I fell terribly behind! Prooobably not too promising that Spring Semester starts in like less than a week, lol, but MLK, St. Patty's and Easter don't tend to trip me up too much!!_

 ** _To_ contour: **_Yayay!_ (´⌣`ʃƪ) _I’m so happy you liked it! Thanks for the feedback!! Reviews are always hella appreciated, and albeit I fail at updating sometimes, they—yours included—have not fallen on deaf ears!…eyes? oh, whatever, lol, point being, enjoy part two! Sorry it’s so late! I really try not to drag so hard on updating, but reality and my expectations seem content on refusing to align lol hope the update lives up to your expectations!! Knowing people like you were awesome enough to actually post something back is definitely something that sticks in the back of my head and keeps me motivated!_

 ** _To_ ElementaryHighlander: **└(ꐦ°᷄д°᷅) _oh god, atm? SHXT! When was that!? January 2nd!? *frantically checks calendar* THE TWENTY-EIGHTH  ALREADY!? Dear god, my procrastination has made me a murderer…_ ●_● _…*hurries to post part two like three week late shock paddles* hang in there!!! Cause dear god…if you thought THAT cliffhanger was bad…I almost feel more cruel and unusual for what I’m about to do next with part two_ (/ _ \\) _please forgive me haha, I tried my best to finish part three before posting it, but New Years rolled around and thwarted all my progress. Lol hopefully this will be sufficient to sustain you for a bit while I work out the kinks! Thank you so much for the review, though! I’m really glad you like it so far_ :)

 _And last, but certainly not least; individual shout out's and thank you's to:_ ** _ElementaryHighlander, KittyPhantomhive, contour, Ahdunnowutmahnamshdb, Decon_St3inx, SiriusElliot, happywhiskers, adriennelwrnc77, LunarEclipses, Every1s_Beta, Zhuusox, EleltraVamp,_** ** _machowus, Alaera, Irisfox, littleberd, and the 14 other Guests_** _who left me kudos!!_ _In addition to the **5 people** kind enough to flatter me by bookmarking this _ (^ **ᆺ** ^) [good aka:  ** _contour, VenusTheMarvelTurtle, adriennelwrnc77, Loloia_Brabock, and Zhuusox._** ]  _I'm definitely not used to having such a profoundly positive response/reaction to my stuff on archive!!!_

 **PART TWO FOR REAL THIS TIME:** s( ^ ‿ ^)-b  
~~_bullshit deactivated_~~. 

* * *

_A One Shot Turned Four_ |  _Part II of IV_

* * *

|12:00  **AM** |

She was tall, thin, and as graceful as any bird Jack had ever seen, even if her wings had grown disproportionate to the rest of her body, it couldn't possibly take away from her natural aesthetic—appearing smaller and more delicate as they folded motionlessly against her shoulders. 

Defining her slender figure, the formfitting fabric was accentuating every curve, clinging tastefully to her hips, and revealing just the slightest amount of cleavage where the neckline plunged. It wasn't slinky, or short, or anything else he thought of when it came to the opposite sex—but it was so simple, that there was something elegant about it.

Something classy. 

" _Holy crap,_ Tooth!" Jack exclaimed as she approached—too awestruck to be disappointed. "You're  ** _beautiful!_** " 

He could hardly believe it was really her—not that he was shallow, or trying to be insensitive, but, well, when he thought of Tooth, he thought of feathers and little bits of blood and gums—not centerfold material. 

The Tooth standing across from him, however, was  _quite_ a different story. 

With light blonde hair, almost as light as Jack's, she wore it simply and swept to one side. Cascading down her neck in a tumble of colors, it must have been at least fifteen inches long—platinum bangs eventually giving way to electric green, streaking into the midsection that framed her face—with faint undertones of teal and turquoise threading fluidly and mermaid-like from beneath as it fell over her shoulder in waves, and then faded gently into iridescent aqua. 

Playing perfectly off the already alluring purple spectrum of her eyes, accentuated with just the right amount of liner, long, thick lashes full and sparkly, shimmering with tiny flecks of glitter, or _something_. One of those secret, bewitching, girly make-up techniques women had that made you stare like you really cared  _what_ it was they put on their eyelashes _;_ in any case, _whatever_ it was, all Jack knew was that god help them if any prepubescent boy ever caught a glimpse of who was _really_ sticking quarters under their pillows at night. 

 _There'd be little lights popping up left and right all over North's globe,_ the teen concluded shamelessly,  _and you can bet your ass every one would be a diehard fairy fan_.

Having already noticed his gawking, the Guardian of Memories simply grinned, shaking her head modestly at the dropped jaw, and making her way across the room to the assortment of liquors. 

"Tooth is  _always_ beautiful, Jack!" North scoffed, swatting the smaller boy on the head for his unintentional discourteousness. 

Rubbing the space, Jack looked up startled, "No, that isn't what I..."

"Seriously, mate—where are your manners?"

|12:17  **AM** |

Instantly, Jack's whole body stiffened, like someone had just held a gun to his back and told him to freeze. Stomach muscles churning uncertainly as the focus of the room shifted and self-sidetracked sidebars about centerfolds and fairies were absconded—twinkling lights and the allure of glitter fizzling out to the juxtaposition of something far more distracting. Illuminative auras extinguishing against the pounding of his heart, too afraid to move as the familiar cadence held him at gunpoint. 

"Try'n go easy on me this time, will ya'?" Bunny asked humorously, receiving no answer. " _MiM_ only knows what'll come outta' that mouth'ah yours next," he kidded, partially in good fun and partially out of nervousness now, "And,  _honestly_ , mate, I'm a  _little_ scared to find out."

Yet, for some reason, the younger boy just couldn't bring himself to face the other way; unnerving the other guardian as he continued to stare, silently, in the opposite direction. 

"That is, if you ever decide to turn around," Aster finished, or added on, he wasn't sure which anymore—couldn't tell where one thought was ending and another was forming—fidgeting with the unfamiliar articles of clothing as he cleared his throat tentatively. 

But Jack remained unmoving. 

"You've  _definitely still got it_ ," Tooth interjected, releasing a sharp whistle. "A couple hundred years later, and you still don't look a day over twenty-five."

"Trus' me," the Australian insisted debonairly, "I'm all washed up compared to you, love. As always  _T_ , you are _truly_ a sight for sore eyes."

"Why, thank you," she did a little curtsy, "but I'll not have you spreading your lies," prismatic purple eyes narrowed playfully. " _You_ , Bunnymund, look positively dashing, and it's high time you started accepting that."

Sandy nodded enthusiastically, pretending to hold up a scorecard that formed a perfect ten over and over again in messy doodles, pointing back and forth between them. 

" _I don't know_ ," Bunny's voice dropped and extended doubtfully, "either I'm losing my touch then, or you need your eyes checked," he suggested, "cause it's gotta be  _pretty bad_ if frostbite here won't even  _look_."

"Yes, what is this second rudeness?" North nodded, somewhere in the sprite's peripherals, gesturing rather blatantly. "Stop treating the silence, Jack. You are hurting Bunnymund's feelings."

"Sorry, I spaced," Jack muttered apologetically, trying to muster his courage, but growing unconfident as the alcohol began to blur his emotions—shifting them indiscernibly in his stomach as he began to pivot, "I was just thinking..."

"Thinking what?" Bunny asked. 

Jack met the eyes he'd been avoiding, only to have the reality of it escape him in return—unable to conceive any situational awareness when sight and sound refused each other. The usually spellbinding vocals beginning to distort and fall away in syllables, lost to the features forming them.

"Frostbite?"

He opened his mouth a fraction of the way, but didn't make a sound. Closing it momentarily after realizing it was agape and then biting down gently on his bottom lip, pulling it between his teeth with these wide, vacant eyes. Innocent, indecipherable, and driving Aster crazy when he couldn't read anything transpiring behind them. 

"Thirty second delay..." Bunny trailed off, after the boy gave him nothing but awkward silence, "...thirty  _one_...thirty  _two_..." he began to count, tapering away into a laugh and trying to appear casual, but it was this unsure, forced sort of sound that Jack had never heard before.

 _Such a curious sound..._ so hesitant and unconfident... _so human_ , Jack realized, cataloging the unfamiliar mannerisms, and finding himself unsure of how he felt at that moment. Continuing to freeze his features into a perfectly sculpted poker face as he watched Bunny's give themselves away, so easily, that it almost seemed accidental. Noticing the way he still went to rest against his heels even though he no longer could, and understanding for the first time how vulnerable the Pooka must have felt without his fur—how exposed and unable to hide. 

"Well, _say_   _something_ ," Aster stumbled, beginning to twiddle his fingers and pick at his cuticles, shifting his weight uncomfortably, desperate to draw the other out. 

But still, there was nothing.

Only silence. 

It wasn't his fault, though. Jack  _wanted_ to say something. He really did. But Bunny had stolen all of his words, and left him speechless instead—forcing him to stand there stupidly, in this drunken sort of daze, while a million different emotions fought for representation—too overwhelmed to process any of them. 

Shock faded into awe, interchanging with a desire that transformed into fear; which blurred into confusion before melting into reticence, and then back to fear once more. Exchanging it endlessly with desire, disbelief, and eventually insanity. Too unsure of this simultaneous sensation—this strange biological division between them that erased—the attraction that had long since altered, but never made any sense.

Never translated.

His mind was about ready to explode, wanting nothing more than to erase the lot of it from memory—rubbing his eyes raw rather than having to believe them—and before long, it was starting to show.

The elder took an uneasy step forward. "What's wrong?"

"You're not a kangaroo anymore," Jack exhaled disappointedly, dropping his shoulders in unison, substituting the drawn out silence with reference points in an attempt to distract from the surfacing irregularities—from how deeply he'd begun to gaze—how soft and focused and far from innocent this was becoming.

A nervous excitement was swelling in the pit of his stomach, and the sight of the other was strangely stirring— watching fixedly as a pair of muscular arms folded across the impressive build of his chest. Tan and smooth and tattooed in all the right places...

"And you're  _certainly_ not  _ordinary_ ," Jack added softly. 

Glancing up, Bunny returned the boy's gaze, but said nothing—almost as if he'd chosen not to hear—or just had no idea how to respond to something so seemingly misplaced. 

Continuing to breathe the man in, in great detail, Jack followed the inward curve beneath deep viridian eyes until it met at the bridge of his nose. Flesh colored instead of pink—with a few scattered freckles in place of whiskers, so faint, you could barely see them _...the kind I wouldn't mind nipping at..._ he shivered, possessed by the sudden urge to do just that. Sliding down the perfectly centered slope and stopping when he reached the vertical groove that melted into the most tempting pair of lips. 

 _It should be_ ** _illegal_**   _to look that good,_ Jack groaned inwardly—conflicted, offset, and completely unable to stop staring at Bunny's alternate form. Standing just as tall, his arms were still crossed, exposing tanned forearms from beneath the short sleeved fabric of a simple grey button-up—top two undone and no tie—tucked into the waistband of darkest denim that pooled around his bare feet.

A detail that drew a smile to the sprite's face.

His hair—what so little of it remained—was a soft, steely shade—almost molten silver where it tousled around his ears; still long, floppy, and folding backwards when baby-blue orbs did a double-take, tracing the sculpture of a well built and more than able body—from his abdomen all the way up to where his neck met the strong, defined jawline with just enough stubble to be sexy. 

"Fro—"

"How could you  _possibly_ think you were  _ordinary?_ " Jack demanded—an innocent, soft sort of frustration in his voice when the other's embarrassment began to infuriate him. 

The elder opened his mouth, but closed it again. 

"I've never seen anything  _like_ you," Jack confessed as he reached out; slowly uncurling his fingers as they hesitated forward, savoring the fleeting sensation of skin beneath his fingertips. "Not in three hundred years."

Rounding in a pained sort of refrain, Bunny's eyes were dilating and constricting in attempts to refocus around anything recognizable rather than pulling away from it—trying so very, very hard to draw some parallel between the soft, unexpected caress, and the bold, unhindered boy he'd never known to do such things. 

Not like this. Not to him. 

"That's because there aren't any left," the elder said quietly, offering the only response he could think to give. Too painfully aware of how alcohol induced the other's opinion had grown, "It's just me, frostbite."

Taking his hand back slowly, Jack met Bunny's eyes with a smile so honest and shy and so unforgivably beautiful that the man couldn't help but swallow the soft-spoken inaccuracies shifting in their wake. 

"I guess they really  _do_ save the best for last then," he grinned, watching it provoke the color in the other's face as his smile grew wider and the words lingered sweetly. 

"You don't really mean that," the Australian dismissed gently, feeling the full extent of emotion misplace in his chest when Jack stepped forward to assure him that he did—accelerating Aster's once steady pulse into a conflicting interest of fear and longing—ears flattening farther and farther as the sentiment became too much to stomach. 

|12:45  **AM** |

"Should we...leave you two alone?" North scratched his head, proceeding confusedly. 

Bunny's head snapped to the side, " _What?"_

"Your eyes are in the bedroom," the larger man shrugged, too drunk to realize how god awfully he was embarrassing them, "I was meaning to be polite."

"Y'mean  _bedroom-_ eyes?" Aster corrected with a sigh, shaking his head dismissively. "What was that again you were tellin' me 'bout too much vodka, and no such thing?"

"I said," North began to pour, "that there is no..." the other cut him off. 

"It was rhetorical, mate, now,  _please_."

North threw his arms in the air, " _What!"_

"You  _know_ what," Bunny glared, somehow less intimidating without his usual raising to full height. "Now  _quit_ it."

" _Yeah_ ," Jack agreed, equally mortified, but trying not to draw anymore unnecessary attention to the fact by redirecting it elsewhere, "Can't you see that he's  _embawased_?"

Aster threw his hands down "A'right,  _that's it!_ I really hope you had your fun," he snatched up his scotch, growing increasingly and unnecessarily livid, "but next time, do me a favor and leave me the  _hell_ out of it."

And with that, he was gone. 

" _Now_ look what you did," Tooth walked forward, almost as furious as Bunny. "Why did you have to go and tease him?  _Both_ of you," she snapped, glancing harshly at one in particular, "I  _told_ you how sensitive he is about this, Jack."

But Jack's eyes were already lost in the direction the other had stormed off in, feeling the pit of his stomach drop guiltily. Never having intended for such a simple thing to set him off like that.  _Bipolar much?_ Jack thought exasperatedly, blocking out the sound of Tooth's reprimands to stare at the distance he'd just forced Bunny so thoughtlessly into. 

"Oh, Bunnnymund has stick up the  _you know where_ ," North shook his head, taking a drink. "It was just joke, Tooth."

" _Clearly_ , not a very funny one," she gestured harshly at the exit route. "Do you even  _remember_ how long it took us to calm him down the  _last_ time?"

"I'll do it," Jack spoke up softly, causing the other two guardians to stop in mid-argument. 

Tooth looked somewhat confused, as if the statement was misplaced coming from him of all people, even considering. "Pardon?"

"I said I'll do it," he repeated, eyes drawn to the ground, dragging one foot. "I'll go talk to him."

" _Perfect!"_ North clapped both hands together, "See, Toothy? Closed case."

The look on her face wavered between doubt and consideration, "I don't know if that's the best idea..."

|1:00  **AM** |

Jack was already halfway out the door though, having a pretty good idea where the other had gone, and hoping desperately that he hadn't just ruined everything.  _See?_ he thought, shaking his head in despair,  _New Years_ _is **cursed**. _

Feeling suddenly stupid, so very,  _very_ stupid for his staring and caressing and hoping and wishing and what it had done to him. Absolutely  _furious_ that he had fallen so impulsively into such an irrational desire and lost all personal security in the process. 

He couldn't help it. He wanted it. He wanted  _him_.

And there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it anymore. 

 _How did it come down to this?_ Jack wondered, kicking along a stray pebble, submerged in the calm, tranquil scenes of Bunnymund's warren outstretching immeasurably in every direction. He'd never felt like this before, so easily subject to feelings beyond his control. But ever since this whole idea had taken root in his subconscious, it had been nothing but a constant disruption. A needle hidden in the haystack of emotion piling up inside him, so carefully hidden, that it had taken half a year for him to find. 

For him to realize what this was. 

What this had  _always_ been.

Jack felt his stomach spoil, misplacing the moments that transpired over the past couple of hours, and forcibly disregarding how much he'd enjoyed them. Or how electrifyingly they'd jumpstarted in his chest. Sighing heavily as he felt the alcohol starting to play tricks on him; displacing the balance of rationale and logic, and diluting the truth into a watered down drink that was too hard to swallow.

|1:15  **AM** |

Aster looked up long before Jack had the chance to approach, "Not now, frostbite, this isn't a good time."

"You'd better make it one then," Jack replied with alcohol-induced confidence. "Because I'm not  _going_  anywhere, and neither are you, _E. Aster,_ _I Can't Keep My Promises,"_ he concluded with a caustic remark.

Sighing deeply, the other got to his feet, sliding a paintbrush into his back pocket and offering Jack a sincere look of disquietude, "I  _really_  don't wanna talk about it, mate."

"Then, let's not talk," the teen took a step forward.

Aster eyed him strangely, "And just what exactly are you suggesting?"

Focusing in on the object, Jack felt the inebriating toxin cause his brain to digress desirably, emboldening him with the audacity to step over the boundaries he was already constantly crossing; hormones winning out to flawed logic, and curiosity threatening to kill him like a catlike reflex. That awkward moment right before his mouth opened and the alcohol spilled out in sentence form...

"Wanna paint me instead?" he grinned devilishly.

"Paint?  _You?_ " Bunny repeated confused, taking a second to process as the suggestive tone cocked his ears to the side, "Are—are you trying to make a  _pass at me,_ Frost?"

"That depends," Jack offered, leaning adorably into the side of his staff, "did it work?"

"Did it  _work_?" Bunnymund asked, ears lowering involuntarily, just ever so flustered. "I'm not even sure what you were trying to  _insinuate_  yet."

"Because I wasn't," the reincarnate countered, falling playfully back into nursery rhyme rhythm. "I said what I meant, and I meant what I said _."_

"You mean like— _literally?_ Why on  _earth_  would I wanna  _paint_ you?" Aster questioned, still failing to find any sense in the other's words, knitting his eyebrows to frame further confusion, "and why in  _MiM's name_  would'ya  _want_ me to?"

Blue eyes sparkled mischievously, "I just figured you must be pretty good with your hands..."

" _Oh,_ I am  _so_  done with this conversation," Aster announced, sidestepping the sprite when Jack caught him by the arm, forcing his focus back to what he was trying both desperately and in vain to ignore. " _What?_ " he demanded, his voice growing brisk. "Don't you have anything  _better_  to do than bother me all the time?"

 _"Better?"_  Jack asked, cocking his head to the side, continuing to lay the puns on thick. "What's better than  _naked-skin_?"

Aster shrugged his arm out of the boy's grasp, roughly enough to be effective, "Are you  _drunk_ , Frost?"

"No, I'm immune to alcohol, that's why I drink it," the sprite rolled his eyes sarcastically, stepping back between Bunny and the path he'd tried to weave around him.

"What do you  _want_  from me?" Aster's arms rose and fell in rapid gestures, losing natural instinct to the hypersensitivity of human nature. "You've been acting like this all night. And it's  _weird,_ " he glared skeptically, "even for you."

"I like to think of myself as  _unique_ ," Jack answered uncooperatively

Emerald eyes were unreceptive, "Don't avoid the subject, Frost."

Jack sighed, realizing he wasn't getting playful Bunny back anytime soon, causing his voice to drop indecipherably when he realized he may have broken this beyond fixing.

“ _Well?_ ” Bunny tapped his foot impatiently. 

The younger boy glanced up, his offense evident. “Why is wanting to spend time with you _weird?_ ”

The reverse psychology caught Aster off guard, causing the elder to open his mouth, and then close it again. Sighing as his posture lost defensiveness and his eyes rounded disappointedly. 

Jack held his hips, impersonating the impatience, “ _Well?”_ he demanded, “I’m _waiting_.”

“It’s not. You’re right. I’m sorry,” the elder exhaled, with what seemed to be great effort and a lack of discernible emotion, turning back towards the large smoothed over boulder he’d previously been sitting on, and signaling for Jack to follow. 

Staring blankly for a moment, the gesture took a second to register, and the ghost-haired boy remained still. Watching the other ease himself back onto he surface and pull the brush from his pocket. 

“C’mere,” Aster said gently, patting the empty space beside him. 

Reluctant and unsure of what to expect, Jack approached gingerly, pausing nervously at the foot of the large, moss-covered mass, and then glancing up undecidedly. Too offset by the pre-menstrual-like mood swings they’d undergone to feel sure of anything anymore. 

Sighing, Bunny reached down. “C’mon,” he began to lift the other gently, “Up you go, Frost.”

Limp as a rag-doll, Jack didn't even put up a fight when he felt the strong hands gather him up in their grasp—not even when Bunny turned him around, inched backwards, and sat Jack down between his legs—gently pushing up one of the boy’s sleeves and opening a small, rectangular wooden case in the process. “Now hold still,” Bunny instructed quietly, the gentle curve of his stomach folding along the teen’s back as he leaned over his shoulder, paintbrush in hand. 

Drawing the utensil between his lips to wet the bristles, he proceeded to swirl them in the soft-colored palette resting against his knee and then across the boy’s skin in steady strides, so methodical and flawlessly executed this was starting to feel like a goddamn movie. You know, need he remind himself, the kind he _hated_. 

The ones about the stupid, unrealistic holiday he _hated,_ with the _never-going-to-happen-in-a-hundred-years-cause-this is-real-life_ scenarios he _HATED,_ along with the without warning, instantaneous,  _change-of-heart-hallmark-worthy-_ **bullshit** that he **hated** the _**MOST** **;** _ so _why_ was he suddenly smack dab in the middle of one? So absentmindedly embodying the role, so eager and happy-go-lucky for the letdown.  

Every motion as mindless as they were an unendurable mindfuck. The man focused and unmoving. The time it took to transition, nonexistent. And the subject-to-subjective destination resulting without any clear objective was mixing with the alcohol and making him dizzy. The strokes soft, delicate, and sending shivers down Jack’s spine, pulled into the other so closely that he could smell his cologne. The scent intoxicating him as he became increasingly aware of Aster’s every outline engulfing and enveloping his body…the warmth of his thighs…the rise and fall of his chest…even the fleeting sensation of his breathing…sweet, shallow, and colliding with his neck in gentle spurts…

…Jack was losing his shit, and Bunny was just…just _painting._ As if they did this every day. Silent as he hovered over the smaller boy, balancing his forearm against his leg and drawing the brush back and forth in intricate, wintry designs, humming softly somewhere in Jack’s peripheral. 

… _Why isn’t he saying anything?…Why won’t he say anything?…Is he EVER going to SAY ANYTHING!?…_

Jack felt his heart beat accelerate. 

 _…I just don’t understand why he’s so calm…How the_ ** _HELL_** _is he_ ** _SO_ CALM** _…_ ** _STOP BEING SO FUCKING_ _CALM_** …

His thoughts raced and outpaced the palpitating. 

… _And_ ** _quiet_** _. And_ ** _composed._** _And JESUS-_ **CHRIST** _don’t you_ ** _dare_** _come any closer you overgrown…cross-polymerizing…kangaroo…man…_ ** _THING_** _…godDAMNIT, why don’t you listen!?_

He demanded ineffectually, all but hyperventilating as he sat there, holding his breath. Making up words and trying to fathom how this frantic upheaval wasn’t mutually upsetting, or even seemingly something that the other had noticed. 

So absolutely nonchalant. So completely contrasting. Never more opposite in their entire lives. 

Jack’s face was so frozen by that point he looked as if he’d been carved straight from the side of a glacier; finally exhausting his ability to form thoughts, and looking helplessly to the aesthetics of the warren to distract him from this cruel and unusual contact, instead. Gradually losing his eyes to the symmetries that morphed in and out of the shadows as the moonlight sifted through the clouds, strings of paper lanterns swinging back and forth in the breeze. 

The air was warm and sweet, filling his lungs with calmness and ease as his breathing became involuntary and set his heart back in steady motion. Heavily sedated, and no longer concerned with the frost on his cheeks that had begun to melt as he allowed his back to sink into the body behind it—slowly, but surely drawing Aster out of focus. 

|1:30 **AM** |

Jack was looking up at the stars. “This is nice,” he said all of a sudden, almost as surprised at the sound of his own voice as he was with the words that fell so effortlessly into place, “I really like it here.”

“Between my legs?” Bunny mused, glancing up before he returned to his brushstrokes. 

“In your _warren_ , **stupid** ,” his arm shot back, elbowing Aster between the ribs. 

A strong hand steadied the fit, pressing into the boy’s stomach, “ _Hold still_ ,” he reiterated, having smudged one of the snowflakes, “I’m almost done.” Then a pause. “I didn’t expect that, though,” Aster admitted, hiding the smudge in swirls of crystalized windfall, “it’s the exact _opposite_ of wintertime here.”

“That’s why I like it," Jack breathed in and out slowly, “it’s different.”

His answer, however, only seemed to upset the pattern in Bunny’s shallow breathing. The other guardian growing silent and steady, setting his brush to the side, “You wouldn’t like it all the time, though,” he said quietly, blowing against the paint to help it dry.

“How do _you_ know?” Jack frowned, pulling his arm away. 

Aster sighed, “Because I just _know_.”

“Please,” he angled himself, “ _elaborate_.”

“It doesn’t stay the same,” the elder simplified. “And eventually, you’d hate it.”

Pale features failed to understand. “Nothing stays the same,” he rationalized, “that doesn’t mean I hate it, though.”

“Maybe not at first,” green eyes became downcast, “but you’d learn to.”

Jack met the presumptuous tone with contest, “How can you hate something that you already like?”

“Easily,” Bunny moved away. “Too easily, actually.”

The boy’s eyebrow rose skeptically in response. “Speaking from experience, cottontail?”

“No,” the other shook his head, “Just realistically.”

“So, _realistically_ ,” Jack inquired, “your point _is_?”

“Well,” Bunny glanced away, “it wouldn’t always look the way you wanted it to…”

“I don’t care how it _looks_ ,” the boy argued absurdly. 

“No,” Aster offered, switching tenses, “but you’re going to.”

And suddenly, Jack wasn’t so sure that Bunny was talking about the warren anymore…

|1:55 **AM** |

The conversation didn’t seem to finish, in fact, it just seemed to end. This fleeting, transitory lapse in accuracy that couldn’t be expanded upon, couldn’t be trusted in the hands of the person who hadn’t seen it until now. Jack supposed, on the surface level at least, that him and Bunny had grown to be friends over time. 

And that was the problem. 

Friendship was a dangerous concept, both an invitation and a denunciation, a boundary that could be bent and broken, a boundary between them that had always been unclear. Opening the doorway to deeper, personal connections, it provided the keys; however, intimacy was a debatable and interchangeable motion, and often changed its locks without warning. 

Therefore, closeness was somewhat hazardous, unlocking entryways that weren’t clearly labeled, and allowing feelings to morph in and out of certainty as they blurred and broke the platonic borderline. However, it was a line that must be crossed by both sides to maintain balance. And more often times than not, it seemed that there were really two lines instead, one thick and solid, and the other broken, allowing one person to intersect, while the other remained stationary. 

In all his selfishness, Jack had never stopped to consider that _he_ was the one standing still before. That Bunny had changed lanes, and he’d become a blind spot. That evasive area that was always lingering, was always waiting somewhere off to the side, life threatening, but so easily forgotten. 

Jack was no child, though, and he knew that object permanence was merely a misconception of the mind, a stage we overcome with age. And although he had ceased to breath just shy of his nineteenth birthday, he had never forgotten how to _see_. 

Being invisible made attention to detail an imperative attribute, so he had long since learned to see through others as they so unfailingly saw through him. And Jack knew, without a doubt, that you didn’t just _pretend_ things weren’t there because the view had been obstructed, that you didn’t avoid the obvious, unless you were hiding it. 

And the other was, if nothing else, infamous for hiding. 

 _It makes sense, doesn’t it?_ he asked himself, glancing to the elder, who walked next to him in unchallenged silence. It made too much sense actually. Why Sandy had let it slip that Bunny was afraid of what Jack would think of him, why Bunny had, in turn, stormed away when the boy had exposed nothing but admiration…

He’d changed lanes.

Just like Jack said. He’d left the signal flashing, visibly for everyone to see. He’d shown every sign of slowing down and switching speeds. But he’d always been faster, and Jack had let the opportunity pass him by a hundred different times. Too concerned with his recklessness to take the rules seriously. 

The laws of attraction he’d violated, because he’d never noticed.

Never acknowledged this.

That the other had brought him back to life; and the strange cardiac calisthenics had corroded in a cacophony of collisions, swallowing the steady beat that skipped between them—throwing off the platonic palpitations until his head and his heart had gone to war with each other, and Bunny had been paralyzed in the crossfire—trapped between a faulty trigger finger and a bullet he couldn’t bite. 

Like a game of _Russian Roulette_ , one bullet, six spaces, unexpected, but lethal, and Jack was the hand that spun the revolver around as if this were all just a game. Until the gun retracted heatedly and shot him straight in the face. 

 _He’s always known_ , Jack realized sadly, and suddenly so disappointed in himself for such a blatant unwillingness to look down the barrel that had been staring him in the face this whole time. For never seeing it, because he never wanted to. Never wanted to believe that the jesting and the teasing were like an adolescent cry for help, the opposition that was meant to distract from the fact that the polarity had reversed, and begun to attract. 

And what better way to play off something so serious, than by pretending it was nothing?

After all, they were both so good at it, weren’t they?

 _“It wouldn’t always look the way you wanted it too…”_ Aster’s words looped in his head like madness. The worst kind of cliffhanger, inconclusive and intoxicating, leaving Jack’s overactive imagination to shade in all the foreshadowing as it lodged in his brain. _There’s just no way he was still talking about the warren,_ he concluded, _it was too well-timed, too specific,_ the train of thought unfolded with increasing conviction. _And I_ highly _doubt he’d put that much thought and consideration into my preference of living standards…_

However, there was a small, prevailing chance that he had, in fact, put as much thought into Jack. He’d never said anything about it before, but why would he? Bunny was the most _‘to himself’_ person Jack knew. His thoughts were calm, calculated, and cataloged in alphabetical order; nothing was ever out of place, and sometimes even his spontaneity felt censored.

Rehearsed.

Like someone had handed him a script, and he’d been playing the part for years. Leaving Jack as the not-so-sublte plot twist that threw off routine characterization—entering Bunny’s life as a cameo that should have never lasted, episodically reappearing until he’d become part of the main cast. Tooth had insinuated as much when she’d challenged him earlier— _“does he, though?”_ she asked, forcing Jack to reflect— _did_ Aster really know that all his teasing, and all his aloofness, was really just an act?

The answer, however offsetting, was _no_.

 _How could he have_ ** _possibly_** _known when I’d only been pretending to be myself?_ He wondered, suddenly glaring at the other, who hardly seemed to notice, _the real question is how could you_ ** _not_** _know,_ Jack redirected his thoughts telepathically, scoffing internally at the notion of ‘acting naturally,’ _it’s the biggest oxymoron since jumbo-shrimp, and you of all people should know the difference._

Or did he?

Jack shook his head, the alcohol was convoluting his brain all over again, and his drunken thoughts were altering the ability to process coherent, sober words—unable to conclude if he was even making any sense. All his fancy, poetic metaphors becoming nothing more than a well-dressed distraction from the fact he couldn’t bring himself to deal with this directly. The elephant in the room that neither of them would admit was there. Object permanence once again becoming one of Piaget’s stages that they had yet to overcome. 

|2:05 **AM** |

Upon reentering, Aster observed Jack’s silence knowingly, “Are you thinking too much about what I said?” he asked, but not unkindly, “because I can tell when you do. Your mouth starts to move a little, and you fixate on focal points.”

Jack’s eyes snapped back into focus, and he felt like there really _wasn’t_ anything he could hide anymore. No blind spot big enough to swallow him. And Bunny caught that just as quickly. 

“Don’t be embarrassed, and stop thinking everything I say always has a double-meaning behind it,” he elucidated effortlessly, “I was just telling you that what you said wasn’t spot-on, that’s all.”

Stopping, blue eyes narrowed. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you to _think_ before you _speak_ ,” he asked accusatorially. 

The other paused, finally turning to establish some sort of contact, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It _means_ , that _maybe,_ you shouldn’t just _assume_ that you _know everything_ ,” Jack spat venomously. 

Bunny sighed, “Where is this coming from? If you think I was out of line, then I apologize, but—”

“If I _think_?” Jack repeated furiously. “I don’t _think_ you were out of line, you _were_ out of line. Just do me a favor and stop pretending like you know me so well, okay?”

The notion seemed saddening. “This can’t _possibly_ still be about the warren, mate,” the elder stated, and the irony was so accurate that it hurt. 

“Was it _ever_ really about the warren?” Jack challenged, redirecting with questions to keep forcing answers. “Or was that just another one of those _double-meanings_ that you claim _don’t_ exist?”

“C’mon, Jack,” Aster began seriously, he never called him by his first name unless it was serious, “What is this really about?”

“You tell me.”

The other sighed, “I wouldn’t be asking if I could, now would I?”

“How should I know?”

“Well, it wouldn’t make much sense,” he concluded. 

Jack’s voice rose incredulously, “Half the things you _do_ don’t make sense,” he rationalized, “you’re always saying things, but they never mean a goddamn thing.”

“Half the things _I_ do _?”_ the other questioned disbelievingly, losing the calm composure of his mask when the inconsistencies became too fluid to frame. “ _Look who’s talking!”_

“Don’t turn this on me,” Jack shook his head unreceptively. “We’re not talking about _me_ , we’re talking about _you_ ** _._ ”**

“Yeah?” Aster asked, “Well it’s a two way street, and this goes both ways, Frost.”

The conversation was growing too satirical to stomach, and it felt as if Bunny had once again read every one of Jack’s thoughts and then used them against him—taking his comparative diversions and disposing of them one-by-one to draw this out into the open. 

“ _What_ goes both ways, Bunny, _do_ be specific,” Jack sneered, feeling small and childish, and furious with the other for making him. 

His features twisted into an unreceptive frown, “That’s not fair.”

“ _This_ isn’t fair,” the sprite folded his arms tightly across his chest. 

“What is _this_?” Bunny smiled sweetly, redirecting the evasive tactics. 

Jack glared, “Like you don’t already know.”

“Hello _pot_ , I’m _kettle_ ,” the other extended his hand sarcastically, “Have we met?”

“ _See!”_ Jack threw his arms up, “You _never_ take me seriously.” 

Aster stared blatantly, “Says the person who never takes _anything_ seriously.”

“That isn’t true,” his cheeks frosted heatedly, “I take _a lot_ of things seriously.”

“You don’t even know what that word means,” Bunny shook his head, “you toss it around like an egg, too stupid to realize how fragile it is.”

“I wasn’t aware this was an egg-toss,” Jack rolled his eyes, “I’ll be sure to remember that next time so I can take five steps back instead of wasting them all on you.”

“You know what, that’s _your_ problem, Frost. You don’t give a damn about anyone but yourself,” he finished, voice catching on every syllable. 

“Wrong again,” Jack stated coldly. “It was being stupid enough to give a damn about _you_.”

|2:15 **AM** |

The night had all but collapsed on itself, and Aster found himself wishing he could simply take back every single thing he’d said. Harsh words all hanging in the air, wondering if he was wrong to leave them there like that. If, perhaps he was wrong to let Jack choke on all these liquid lies and preemptive smiles, while he himself clung to the skirts of his excuses. Too over protective to do anything but smother the poor boy. 

How could he possibly let something so beautiful breathe? If this started, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself, he knew that already. It’s not like he could honestly stand there and deny that he’d been so very tempted to submit to it. After all, he wasn’t blind, he could see full well how the boy looked at him…all the ways Jack never knew that Bunny had been looking at _him_.

How he had _always_ looked at him. 

It was so terribly hard not to, to be honest. And the soft, disorienting sort of seduction was making it all the more impossible to look anywhere else. But he couldn’t let the knots in his stomach pull him anywhere near the boy they were already wrapping around, because he just _couldn’t._ It couldn’t happen. Not now, not ever, not for a _hundred_ good reasons. 

But it wasn’t supposed to hurt this much…knowing the difference it made…but it _did_. And it hurt like hell…hurt so badly to know that he’d only now become interesting…after everything about him had changed.

|2:20 **AM|**

_“And it’s hard to learn, and it’s hard to love, when you’re giving me such sweet nothing…”_

The lyrics broke against his ears like an auditory slight, as if New Years had personally taken the single, most heartbreaking moment and then set it to a soundtrack. Looping endlessly in his head. Could the selection have possibly come at a worse time? Mocking Jack with the sweet intonations that narrated his feelings as if they were nothing more than lyrics to a song, empty words that never belonged to him. 

_“Sweet nothing, sweet nothing. You’re giving me such sweet nothing…”_

Jack rubbed his eyes furiously when they began to prickle, not wanting the other guardians to notice his features as they fell; as Aster entered the room only seconds behind, and the words sank heavily like a weight in his chest. Coining the phrase that pays, the sweet-nothings that formed an unfeasible debt, the price Jack would never be able to pay…

_“It isn't easy for me to let it go. Cause I swallowed every single word. And every whisper, every sigh, eats away at this heart of mine. And there is a hollow in me now…”_

…because they didn’t **mean** _anything_.  Because the truth of it was, they were exactly what they claimed to be, soft-spoken exchanges that held no emotional value. Bunny had built a bridge between them and then burnt it down, tricking him into thinking he was crossing over, when he was merely falling through. 

Saddening him irreconcilably when Jack realized that he’d lost sight of how to share himself with anyone…

_“So, I put my faith in something unknown—I’m living on such sweet nothing—but I’m tired of hope with nothing to hold…”_

 

|2:25 **AM** |

North was well in his cups by the time they’d gotten back, and Tooth was scolding them for worrying her half to death, but Jack couldn't muster up the strength to deal with any of it. Too exhausted and defeated and terribly aware that New Years had played him like a puppet wearing strings. Offering only the false impression that he had any control. Over himself, or the night, or the hand falling hesitantly across his shoulder. 

“Sorry, _T_ ,” Aster exchanged formalities, “but I need to borrow Jack for a second.”

“ _Sorry, Bunny_ ,” Jack pulled away, “but I’m busy right now.”

Tooth blinked.

“Well, you should’a thought about that earlier.”

“What happened earlier?” she asked, glancing back and forth between hostility and avoidance. “What’s going on?”

Blue eyes pierced, “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“There’s _a lot_ to talk about,” the other stepped forward. 

“Not anymore, you saw fit to that.”

“Saw fit to _what_?” Tooth interjected once more. 

“ _Please_ ,” Aster’s head snapped in her direction, unable to mask his irritation, “just stay out of it.”

She drew back, slightly shocked, and a little hurt by Bunny’s dismissal. 

“Don’t _yell_ at her,” Jack snapped.

“Who is yelling?” North boomed drunkenly, “Bunnymund, is that you?”

The Australian sighed, drawing his thumb and forefinger to the bridge of his nose, “ _Yes_ , _North._ It’s me,” he confirmed, losing patience fast. 

“You are troubled,” the older man swayed, setting a hand on the guardian’s shoulder, “What is wrong? Where is Jack!?”

The sprite flicked his wrist, “ _Right here_ , big guy.”

“Oh!” North jumped back, “Then who is _that?_ ”

Jack stepped back perplexedly, staring at Bunny as they both glanced towards the empty space, losing their tempers somewhere in the confusion. 

“Oh, _North!_ ” Tooth rushed forward, “I told you only _one more_ glass!”

“ _One more glass!?_ ” the other’s eyes lit up hopefully.

The Guardian of Memories smacked her forehead, “Oh, brother.”

“Who’s brother?”  thick eyebrows furrowed. “Is that who that is?”

“North,” Jack interrupted, “there’s nobody there.”  
  
“Exactly how much _have_ you had to drink?” Aster steadied the swaying strides. 

The other didn’t seem to hear him though, “And why does Jack look like easter-egg?”

Jack yanked down his sleeve, quick to hide the evidence. 

“Why _are_ you full of paint?” Tooth cocked her head to the side, trying to get a better look when the sleeve obstructed her view. 

Wobbling over in a disoriented hover, Sandy began to form something that looked like two people before North lunged forward. 

“ _Sandy!”_ he cried, quickly censoring the array of imagery that Jack could only guess had been explicit, “Not in front of the small one!”

Aster rubbed his temples, “This isn’t happening.”

|2:37 **AM** |

But it was. And Bunny was quickly losing the ability to ignore it. 

|2:46 **AM** |

Jack felt the soft pressure of hands folding over his shoulders, knuckles furrowing in an almost massage like motion that both eased and heightened the tension. “C’mon,” Aster prompted, even though all Jack had given him in response was an impervious scowl, “Let’s go for a walk.”

The smaller boy hadn’t moved a muscle though, and all he could feel were the strong, tempting pair of hands that refused to play fair; easing one of his palms along the back of Jack’s neck with his thumb on one side and the rest of his fingers on the other, all simultaneously set in a pressured rotation, kneading with the most beckoning and shamelessly persuasive technique, expert precision and so formfitting it was piercing, like an acupuncturist who'd just hit all the right points. Opening blocked off channels and causing the stagnant build up to flow freely.

The winter sprite shuddered involuntarily, a reaction that was both inaccurate and misleading in comparison to what was convulsing in his chest at that point, pulling forward uncooperatively, but only to feel the other’s grip grow firmer and almost demanding. Applying just enough force to ease the boy back into the fact it had not been a request. And just enough that it was turning Jack on way more than it should be. 

He hated him for that. For having such inexplicable control over him without demonstrating any discernible intent, or even applicable effort. Instead, every motion became accidentally sexual, overriding the boy’s capacity to endure the overwhelming excitement of flesh-on-flesh. How easily Bunny seduced him out of infuriation and into the clutches of a not-so-innocent frustration, when Jack wanted nothing more than to be furious with him. 

There was surely nothing worse than folding beneath another’s touch when you wished to curdle at the mere sight of it; and the combination of alcohol and raw masculinity were making the unintentionally arousing impressions swell from his brain down to his loins. The deadly combination of factors that made this hard to ignore and even harder to resist. Even when they brokered no real incentive. However that couldn’t seem to stop Jack from melting like a marionette in the palm of Bunny’s hand—just _waiting_ for his strings to be pulled. 

Craning his neck backwards, Jack provoked a sharp, upward range of contact, what had once started out as a self-fashioned, _‘go fuck yourself,’_ glare, quickly transforming into a come-hither, _‘fuck me, instead,’_ stare. He probably should have been more embarrassed than he was, but then again, it was such an involuntary reflex, and one that he had not willed into place. 

Besides, the contact was stimulating, even if it delivered about as much as a thirty-second internet clip, only enough to successfully achieve a heightened state of desire, but never the decency to take responsibility for the action. However, being left unable to seek relief directly from the source is what made it so needlessly exhilarating to uphold the pending frustration through the exchange of their eyes. 

And Jack could feel his own becoming electrically charged against the opposing, yet similar frequency that sapphire eyes began swallowing the reflections of—Bunny’s emerald green auras dying out when the contrasting intensity overwhelmed their expectancy. Staring up unflinchingly as the other began to shift uneasily, the grip of Aster’s fingers became less persuasive as the strength of their conviction weakened on contact, and Jack’s provided all the inference they would ever need. 

“Hey,” he released softly, only addressing the man above him, in hopes of drawing out contact and conversation for as long as possible before the kangaroo usurped all authority over them; _which, really isn’t something I’d mind, come to think of it…_

Swallowing, Bunny, admittedly, met the look with moderate surprise and not nearly enough immunity as he would have liked, “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that it was rude to stare, mate?”

“Then look away,” the smaller boy challenged, the ambiguous angle in his smile narrowing into the kind of smirk that could drive a grown man wild. 

And the elder seemed to fall victim to the assertion, temporarily forgetting himself. Unable to resist how quickly the gaze tangled him back into those conflicting knots again, winding through the ones that were still trying to unravel under the ever-changing contexts. 

“Never said I wanted’ta,” Aster redirected indiscernibly, but with all the confidence of someone with more experience. 

It was a sound that couldn’t easily be swayed, a sound that Jack would love to swallow whole until he could feel it writhe deep inside him somewhere—anywhere— _everywhere_ , his thoughts tacked on systematically, taking his once well intended comparison and turning it into exactly what it sounded like. 

“ _Ohhh_ , I see,” Jack expressed suggestively, purposely moving his lips in the shape of the sound, “you like the angle, huh?”

“Depending on who’s in it,” the other guardian shrugged, predominantly unfazed and unaffected, except for the over articulated and shapely mouth that was causing his fingers to curl, just noticeably, into a tighter grip. 

A grip that did not go unnoticed to the muscles it was teasing and tensing with its soft, almost empty pressure. A force that quickly transferred and extended its range of contact as Jack detected the hypersensitive sensation of Bunny’s hands sliding down the lengths of his arms. 

“So, about that walk,” Aster tried again. 

Gathering the other’s hands in his own, and forcing his fingers between the spaces, still devoid of any sexual implication, but far too brash and unprecedented to be contrived as normalcy. An inconsistently open for interpretation. 

An interpretation that Jack had been adapting in his mind for quite awhile now, and one that transfixed him regardless of any discernible conclusion; and although there was a rather prominent part of the boy that preferred to dismiss it in its entirety, he’d already succumbed to the allure. Deciding that he’d rather get lost within his favorite fantasy than spend the night infuriated in the face of its illogical existence. 

That even though he was still partially furious with Bunny, that he’d rather trade anger for the shameless pleasure of provoked contact, instead. Allowing Aster’s fingers to slip between the empty spaces and lift him from the couch in one, easy motion. Neither of them paying the slightest attention to whether or not they were being watched, the fact of the matter never even occurring to them. 

Still slightly nervous, in that fearful part of his stomach, Jack readied himself for the possibility that Bunny’s fingertips would become fleeting. But, to his pleasant and unforeseen surprise, they were steadfast and unexpectedly reassuring. A sort of vicarious strength that he felt transferring from the strong, stoic man he’d never gotten this close to before, whose own hands held onto his with an unfaltering grip as they pull him towards the uncertainty awaiting this ‘walk’ of sorts he’d proposed. 

Even in his fit of scatterbrained elation though, Jack wasn’t stupid enough to believe that the gesture was without consequence, or that Aster hadn’t intended to turn this into some talk of deeper unpleasantries that they’d not yet hashed out prior, however, he decided then and there that he’d do just about anything if it meant the other would keep touching him…

|3:00 **AM** |

“You know, you really don’t have to do this…”

“Sure I do,” he shrugged.

Jack turned to face him. “Bunny, I’m serious…”

Smiling warmly, he took both of the boy’s hands again. “So am I.”

Jack sighed, but not before refocusing in on a distinct pattern of shivers pulsing through him. They were becoming so hard to ignore lately. Recently. _Always_ , Jack supposed was a better way to phrase it. They came in different waves and motions, but they all crashed and broke against the image of the one and only, E. Aster. 

And no one else. Not for a very long time. 

The dimensions of Bunny’s warren seemed to bend in misleading directions though as Jack developed the increasing awareness of paint on his skin and the circumstances of the last moment they’d shared out here. A moment that wasn’t exactly helping to quell the yearning sensation that his stomach seemed content to savor, continuously teasing him with the incomplete idea of what it truly felt like to be between the other’s legs. 

However, their previous conversation had left Jack completely unprepared for this. And he would have never guessed that Bunny had something up his sleeve. 

It wasn’t grandiose or material. It was just nice. A nice gesture. And that’s what made it all the more tempting. Bunny explained that it was to make up for earlier, and Jack explained that it wasn’t necessary. 

But Aster insisted, so he didn’t argue. 

Following his footfalls in a pattern towards the shallow stream of iridescent egg-dye, he watched Bunny bend over to shuffle a stray eaglet back into its group. Jack paused, cocking his head to the side, and allowing himself to trace the curve of Aster’s backside. Deep denim fabric stretching taut and well-defining around his thighs and lower region until almost all false modesty had been forgotten as he continued to stare. 

Another key piece of imagery that did nothing but provoke the endless train of thought and fantasy spiraling simultaneously through both chambers of his heart as it began accelerating. The imagery adorning the walls of his brain completely clad in the various motions of their bodies tangling in an x-rated swirl. But with the combination of Aster and alcohol, he’d already known it wouldn’t be long before these sorts of ideas overwhelmed him. Jack couldn’t say they were the most accurate, or the most innocent, of images, but as long as they entailed Bunny, then they were perfect for producing certain _side-effects_. 

He’d never been attracted to another man before. In truth, he’d only ever really _been_ with one other person, and _she_ was a girl. Someone he’d known growing up and didn’t like to talk about. 

Ever.

Frowning suddenly to himself for forcing her memory indirectly back into mind by telling himself _not_ to think about it. It wasn’t that he still loved her; well, not romantically, or that he’d never gotten over her, he just didn’t like to think about life before this. 

Because it was all gone. All dead. 

Wasn’t that ironic? In its own twisted, little way? He’d died a young man of eighteen years, before any of them, and yet he’d outlived them all, at least a hundred years over. Although he supposed, perhaps, that was another thing Bunny and he had in common, they’d outlasted everyone they’d ever known. 

Sure, if you wanted to split hairs, his situation lacked in comparison to the Pooka’s more tragic tale, but Jack didn’t like divvying up people’s personal lives incrementally and awarding merits of _better_ or _worse_. No, he just liked to find the little similarities between them, those little bridges that the world had built. 

He liked the little things they had in common, and oftentimes wondered if they weren’t the real reason this little attraction had grown and flourished in the first place. The foundation upon which Jack had erected this idea of them together. It wasn’t always this intense, not by a long shot, in fact, if you’d tried to sing him such a song a year ago, Jack would have laughed wholeheartedly in your face. 

Not because it was insulting or ‘ludicrous to assume,’ or that he was even judgmental, but the concept hadn’t existed in the puritanistic era he’d grown young in. Well, he was sure it had _existed_ , somewhere, behind some closed doors, between some people at some point; but it had never been something he’d ever thought to consider until he found that _someone_. 

|3:10 **AM** |

“I feel bad about what I said earlier,” Aster admitted, releasing the rest with slight difficulty, “and I can’t stand to see you so upset.”

“But, I thought…”

“That I don’t ever think about you?” Bunny finished for him.

“Yeah,” Jack sank back, even more bewildered with the verbalization of the fact than the implications of the gesture itself. 

“Well, you thought wrong,” he sat down next to him, left thigh pressed against the boy’s right, not too much, but just enough to feel the heat. 

Without meaning to, Jack’s eyes reached out into Bunny’s again, and the words slipped out helplessly, “It seems there’s a lot I’ve been wrong about lately.”

“Oh yea?” Aster asked, but had to turn away, his cheeks were pink. 

“Yeah,” Jack pulled the edge of his bottom lip in thoughtfully with his teeth, watching deep, viridian eyes as they followed the motion. 

When Bunny looked back up, his pupils dilated and constricted against his attempts to readjust and refocus around something recognizable again, but Jack knew he wasn’t going to see anything. Because there was nothing about them that was the same anymore. Sometimes it was less noticeable, and sometimes it was obvious. But Aster always caught it, and it left him looking scared again. 

Just like earlier in the night, before and after he’d swapped forms, the cautious looks and glances that turned utterly terrified upon meeting his crystallized gaze. As if he feared Jack as some mortal weakness.

Some unexplainable threat.

Nervously repositioning, Aster’s hands retracted to his sides, and Jack noticed the uneasy sway set into motion. “Well, to err is human,” he laughed that painfully fake laugh, “right?”

“Was that a confession?” Jack leaned slightly forward, making sure to fill even more, but not all of the space left between them. It wasn’t an advance, not truly, but Bunny shrank away from it. And there was something both exciting and empowering about how easily he was controlling the ebb and flow of their bodies. Something setting _him_ into motion. 

Temporarily joining the power trip, Aster’s face closed another fraction of space, “Did you want one?” he asked, his breath misting and dissolving against Jack’s. 

For half a second, he could taste it. The fleeting brush of a kiss he’d never gotten floating over his lips and retracting the proximity he longed to close, breathing in the tasteless atmosphere, and thinking how it should have tasted like springtime and the occasional cigarette Bunny claimed he never had. Pulling forward and thinking how it was as good a time as any to find out if that were true…

“Not as much as I want this,” he mumbled.

|3:17 **AM** |

Groaning vexedly, there was nothing Bunny could do about it, pulling Jack into his chest when he realized this accident was no longer preventable, sinking into his mouth with a deep, yet delicate urgency. Lips parting slowly, but starting to press harder, fingers furrowing through ghost-white strands and angling their heads to gain access.

Out of breath and out of focus, words were lost and consequences temporarily forgotten.

Jack held on tightly to his wrists, then his waist, then the back of his neck; returning the faster, stronger pace and trying to remember not to open his mouth too wide. Hands clutching Aster’s back when his steady fingertips collided with the boy’s skin, sliding up the length of his stomach and securing a firm grip that drew them closer. Pressing his lips into Jack’s so softly, and so sweetly, that it felt unforgivable somehow, clenching his fists and holding the boy’s entire body like he was terrified to let go. 

It only lasted for a moment, before something forced them apart and they were reversed back into an anatomic position; the lack of continuity they upheld refusing consistency like two opposing magnets. 

Bunny disengaged and his body language became distant. An aurora borealis of amaranth, fire-brick, and crimson cascaded across his cheekbones and bent over the bridge of his nose in a furious burning. His face twisted in pained confusion, green eyes began to cloud with scattered frequencies of thought, and then he left Jack sitting there dumbfounded and speechless.

He just turned around and left without saying so much as a single word.

|3:25 **AM** |

Captivated, aggravated, perplexed, and amazed, Jack sank back into the grass, completely overwhelmed, and suddenly beginning to pour tears that he couldn’t match any emotion to. Unable to breathe as the oxygen tore through his lungs and all seven letters smacked him in the face.

_Friends._

Exhaustion swept over him, and the darkness was swallowing Jack faster than he could form symbolism for. The dilapidated cairns spread throughout the warren were whispering calm yet chilling riffs as the wind poured through the cracks in their consistencies, and the opposing force of gravity was aching under the phantom pressure of past words, _“you don’t even know what that word means,”_ and suddenly Jack felt fourteen more hit him even harder.

_Nothing. Serious._

|3:40 **AM** |

“North!” Bunnymund yelled, after the rather inebriated guardian had wandered off towards his tunnels, “Sleighs over there,” he pointed in the other direction, “That’s Africa, mate.”

The man's face flushed with increasing confusion, eyes squinting and recoiling in a to and fro sway as they found this to be true, Tooth scurrying around behind him to usher him towards the preprogrammed coordinates of his massive, rickety, hunk of machinery, Jack hiccuping in laugher when the Guardian of Wonder demanded what Africa was doing in the middle of Australia. 

Aster shook his head, “I’ll tell you later,” he assured, knowing it would give North an incentive to leave so that he’d be that much closer to unraveling the mystery that was simply made such by all the alcohol going straight to his brain, and that all would soon be forgotten.

“YES,” he over-emphasized, climbing into the sleigh with Tooth’s assistance, “we must be getting to the bottom of this—until next time, old friend!”

“Until next time,” Bunny agreed, wondering if it wasn’t smarter to take the man home himself when North began to holler at one of his sentinels, insisting it was Jack. 

“Say goodbye to your brother for me,” he instructed, swaying with the reigns in one hand while the other rose in a ‘peace’ like veer, “and _remember_ , EYES IN HEAD, Jack!” North shouted over the sound of _actual_ Jack, stubby fingers pointing from his own towards what he thought to be the boy’s in a forewarning gesture. “You are _finally_ off naughty list, so be looking twice,” the larger man shook his finger continuously, and quite frankly, to the sprite’s relief, towards the inanimate object, “or else maybe you will be making list of your own! Alcohol does this, I know,” North nodded.

“ _Ohhhkay!”_ Tooth shoved the drooping, tethered cable back into his hands, “I think that’s enough, North. Bunny’s more than capable of keeping Jack off any _lists_ ,” she shot the humanoid an equally speculative and unconvinced glance.

North slapped his knee, finding this hilarious. “Bunnymund keep Jack _off_ list!?” he belted out with laughter, as if the combination were the punchline to some brilliant, ongoing joke. “Bunnymund will be what is putting him at TOP of list!”

Jack glanced knowingly to Aster, looking unappreciative as ever, but too human to hide how red in the face he was; especially when North roared onward, Sandy appearing beside him in a similar burst. Rolling around his cloud with what looked like a yogurt cup above his head. 

“ _Oh no, sandman,_ too much, _too much!”_ the larger man wiped away involuntary tears of drunken amusement, turning in whichever direction seemed right, “Did you hear that _silly rabbit!?”_ he asked, shouting at a group of terrified egglets, “ _Tricks are for Kids!”_

 _“Anddd_ you really just said that,” Bunnymund sighed, eyes turning upward, distractedly towards the sky as he shook his head. “ _All of that_ ,” he murmured conclusively under his breath; certain now, more than ever before, that he would never again be able to meet the other boy’s eyes for as long as they both lived. 

Which, how conveniently, was forever. 

Quickly, Tooth pressed the buttons on North’s sleigh in the right order, sending the vessel off in a trail of echoing laughter until it faded into complete and utterly awkward silence. After which the remaining three guardians shuffled back inside for lack of better ideas, Tooth having already bid her goodbyes shortly after North’s abrupt departure, excusing herself due to both the time and a certain _other_ holiday that she traditionally _rang_ the New Year in with. 

Which, according to Sandy, looked as if she’d intended to take a tumble with some midieval rendition of what Aster _assured_ him was supposed to be Cupid’s bow-and-arrow, and _not at all_ what it looked like. Jack finding himself much and more relieved, seeing as there were just some things about his fellow guardians he’d rather _not_ know. The pre-battery-era-operating-looking-device Sandy insisted on forming, being one of them.

|3:59 **AM** |

That is, until the little golden ball of drunken dream sand too seemed to have disappeared; and it was just the two.

The two of them.

All alone, and with so much to talk about…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To Be Continued...
> 
> 彡*excuses*乀●﹏●ೡ✄*part 3 draft*↔ ↕- - -
> 
> (sincerely working my ass off to finish the next installment)

**Author's Note:**

> If you're seeing this, you either read this fic and or accidentally scrolled all the way to the bottom desperately trying to click the eff off this page, or--as my sister does--speed skimmed through the whole thing to see if it had specifically what you wanted to read. Absolutely NO SHAME in that lol. Either way, thank you :)
> 
> And to anybody who may've liked/read--or read and liked I should say--this story so far, or, hell, even if you don't like it or have anything nice and/or favorable to say about it, I always enjoy reading as well as appreciate any and all sort of feedback. Slash answering any questions you may have; so, if you wind up dropping me a line, that's awesome, you're awesome, and you can bet your bottom dollar that you'll see a response from me at some point too! I'm typically pretty prompt with that part. 
> 
> Huzzah!...now...finals (･_･”)...time to...study....「(゜-゜) ...hmmm...orrrr perhapppps ԅ(≖‿≖ԅ just a FEW more hours of writing...  
> I mean...who needs sleep.|(❂‿❂)/ I SLEPT THURSDAY AT 12 TO 9 AM FRIDAY, IT'S ONLY SUNDAY＼(●o○;)ノWOO I can do anything (╯°□°）╯ ︵ ┻━┻ #$%*! you school/sanity/responsibilities ...aaaand come my 8 AM tomorrow... (˃̶᷄︿๏）"is that...sunlight...!? ..are we learning today?....aaand ヽ(_ _ヽ)彡 CRASH. "here prof., take, take this fan-fic," ヘ(.>_< ヘ)  
> "yeah, Morgan, this would be political science..." ヘ(＿　＿ヘ) "no, really, you'll love it..." THE END.
> 
> aaaaand. YEAH. I have recently gotten back into the ascii emoticon nonsense, haha it was big when I was in like grade school, and now I swear I've got a problem haha I have wayyy too much fxcking fun with them.
> 
> Thanks again :) Sorry for potentially scaring you for life with my emoticon rants!! (theeeyyy...will most likely continue...)


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